Smoke rises over a hotel damaged in Dubai’s famed Palm Jumeirah, in Dubai. PHOTO: REUTERS
DUBAI/DOHA:
Loud blasts were heard in Dubai and the Qatari capital Doha for a second day on Sunday and Oman was hit for the first time as retaliatory strikes on neighbouring Gulf states in response to US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic widened.
Iran had said it would target US bases in the region but it has hit a range of other targets across Gulf cities.
Two people were injured in Dubai after shrapnel from drones fell over two houses when they were intercepted, a Dubai media office statement said.
Dubai’s international airport, its landmark Burj Al Arab hotel, and man-made Palm Jumeirah Island all suffered damage.
Thick black plumes of smoke continued to rise from the Jebel Ali port area, where one of the berths caught fire on Sunday because of debris from an intercepted missile.
In neighbouring Oman, which was spared retaliation on Saturday, Duqm commercial port was targeted by two drones, wounding one worker, the state news agency said.
Dubai is the biggest tourism and trade hub in the Middle East and its airport is one of the world’s busiest travel hubs.
Qatar’s interior ministry said on Sunday that it was responding to a limited fire in an industrial zone after debris fell from an intercepted missile.
Read: More strikes aimed at Iran after US, Israeli assault kills supreme leader Khamenei.
Following US and Israeli strikes, Iran retaliated with attacks across the Middle East, targeting Dubai, Doha, Bahrain, and Kuwait — locations with US military bases or allied to the United States — and other areas.
Explosions were reported in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar.
Bahrain said the service centre of the US Fifth Fleet had been subjected to a missile attack. Video footage from witnesses in Bahrain showed a thick grey plume of smoke rising from near the small island state’s coastline as sirens wailed.
At least half a dozen witnesses, including Reuters correspondents, heard loud booms in various parts of the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, a major oil producer and close US ally.
One witness told Reuters she heard five booms in rapid succession that caused windows in a house near Abu Dhabi’s Corniche to vibrate. Other witnesses in the Al Dhafra and Bateen areas also reported loud explosions.
Qatar said it had downed all missiles targeting the country, according to the state news agency. A Qatari official told AFP that defence systems intercepted an Iranian missile as warning sirens sounded across the Gulf state.
Read more: Iran’s Khamenei: revolutionary atop Islamic republic
The attack comes after Israel and Iran engaged in a 12-day air war in June, following repeated US-Israeli threats that they would strike again if Iran pressed ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
The US and Iran renewed negotiations in February in a bid to resolve the decades-long dispute through diplomacy and avert the threat of a military confrontation that could destabilise the region.
Israel, however, insisted that any US deal with Iran must include the dismantling of Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure, not just stopping the enrichment process, and lobbied Washington to include restrictions on Iran’s missile programme in the talks.
Iran has repeatedly said that it has never sought nuclear weapons.
