Critical infrastructure across the Gulf came under attack from Iran on Sunday, with damage reported at civilian facilities in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Gulf countries have faced repeated drone and missile salvos from Iran in response to US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic that began at the end of February.
Iran has targeted energy and other industrial infrastructure in the oil-rich Gulf nations, accusing its neighbours of allowing US forces to carry out attacks from their territory.
The Gulf states have vehemently denied the accusations.
Attacks by Iranian drones on Sunday resulted in “severe” damage to Kuwaiti oil and petrochemical facilities, the state petroleum company said.
The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said a number of facilities of its subsidiary Petrochemical Industries Company were targeted in the attack which “resulted in the outbreak of fires at several of these facilities and caused severe material damage”.
Earlier, Kuwait’s electricity and water ministry said two power and water desalination plants were damaged by a drone attack from Iran, causing “significant material damage and the shutdown of two electricity generating units”.
In Kuwait City, the finance ministry said an Iranian drone attack caused “extensive” damage to a government building, but “no human casualties were recorded”.
The war has spread across the Middle East, and Iran’s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure as well as its effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping lane, have convulsed the global economy.
Earlier, authorities in Abu Dhabi said they were battling fires at a petrochemical plant in Ruwais Industrial City on the UAE’s northwest coast.
“Authorities are responding to multiple fires in Borouge petrochemicals plant, caused by falling debris following successful interceptions by air defence systems,” the Gulf emirate’s media office said.
“Operations at the facility have been immediately suspended while damage is assessed. No injuries have been reported,” it added after the United Arab Emirates’ defence ministry earlier said it was responding to missile and drone attacks.
Iran’s military said it was targeting “aluminium industries” in the UAE and US military infrastructure in Kuwait, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
Iran has repeatedly threatened civilian infrastructure in the Gulf countries as US-Israeli attacks on Iran have also hit targets that are key to its economy.
On Saturday, a strike on a petrochemical hub in southwest Iran killed five people, the deputy governor of Khuzestan province said.
In Bahrain on Sunday, the state energy company said an Iranian drone attack sparked a fire at a storage tank that was later extinguished.
“Bapco Energies confirms an incident occurred at one of its storage facilities earlier today resulting in a tank fire, as a result of a hostile Iranian drone attack,” the company said, without specifying the location of the blaze.
It added that the damage was being assessed and no injuries were reported.
Iran’s escalating threats have also extended to desalination plants on which the desert Gulf states rely heavily for their water supplies.
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