Iran has said it would target US bases in the region. It has hit a range of other targets.
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.
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.