Iran struck the world-famous Fairmont resort in Dubai, setting the resort alight, as the war launched by the US and Israel on Iran shortly unfold to the remainder of the Middle East on Saturday.
Residents watched in shock as an Iranian missile hit the five-star resort in Dubai’s luxurious Palm Jumeirah space. Social media movies confirmed fires breaking out close to the doorway of the resort, which led to 4 individuals being injured.
Later Dubai authorities stated particles from an intercepted drone prompted a fireplace on the metropolis’s well-known luxurious resort the Burj Al Arab and Dubai’s worldwide airport. Abu Dhabi Airports stated in a publish on X that an incident at Zayed worldwide airport within the UAE’s capital resulted in a single fatality and seven accidents. It later deleted the publish.
“Civil Defence teams responded immediately and brought the incident under control. No injuries have been reported,” the Dubai media workplace wrote on its X account.
The media workplace additionally stated that a part of Dubai’s worldwide airport “sustained minor damage in an incident,” with out giving additional particulars.
One Dubai resident stated that “everyone is very scared” as the scenario continued to deteriorate.
“There is footage of missile interceptions all over the city,” they stated. “I am packing a suitcase just in case … not that we can leave, because airspace is closed. It is the thing we have all been frightened about happening, and now it has.”
Elsewhere within the Gulf, beforehand thought-about oases of stability within the Middle East, comparable scenes unfolded.
Within hours of the primary US and Israeli bombs being launched, Iran responded with a wide-ranging assault concentrating on greater than six international locations, pulling in locations that had been beforehand untouched by the escalating disaster.
In Bahrain, an Iranian drone flew right into a high-rise constructing in what regarded like a focused assault, exploding and engulfing the skyscraper in flames. Earlier, the nation’s nationwide safety company was additionally struck by an Iranian missile.
Social media footage additionally appeared to indicate a missile hitting the large US naval base in Bahrain. In Kuwait, a drone crashed into the nation’s essential airport, wounding a number of workers and damaging the ability.
As Iran responded to US and Israeli strikes by bombing the Gulf and Israel, its proxies joined the fray. Bases belonging to the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq had been struck by both the US or Israel, killing no less than two members of the armed Iraqi group Kataib Hezbollah.
The Iran-backed teams responded by coming to its help, with Kataib Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis each warning they’d be becoming a member of strikes on US army bases across the area.
Just just a few hours into what Washington was calling Operation Epic Fury, preventing had already expanded far past the geographic scope of the earlier war in Iran in June 2025, which was virtually fully confined to Israel and Iran.
For residents within the Middle East, the escalating war prompted nervousness and concern.
In Lebanon, gasoline stations across the nation had strains 10 vehicles deep inside an hour of the strikes. People in Beirut airport watched as industrial flights had been cancelled, and grocery shops had been full of the extra cautious stocking up on important items – the reminiscence of the 2024 war with Israel recent of their minds.
All eyes had been on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that beforehand stated the killing of Iranian supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a crimson line.
A press release from the group on Saturday afternoon made no point out of whether or not it might assist its chief patron, Iran, however as an alternative condemned what it described as a violation of the UN constitution by the US and Israel.
Many Lebanese dreaded the entry of Hezbollah into the continuing battle, scared of triggering a response from Israel, which has signalled by means of diplomatic channels that it might unleash a wide-ranging assault towards Lebanon within the case of Hezbollah’s involvement.
Explosions rocked the remainder of the Middle East as Israel intercepted incoming Iranian ballistic missiles above different international locations. In Jordan, fires blazed within the northern metropolis of Irbid as missile shrapnel fell from the sky and caught alight.
The assaults drew condemnation from Arab states across the area for what they known as a violation of their sovereignty by Iran. Qatar known as the Iranian strikes on its territory a “direct assault on national security”, whereas it and different Gulf states warned they’ve the best to reply.
Iranian international minister Abbas Araghchi stated in an interview with NBC that he advised Gulf states “we have no intention to attack them but we are actually attacking the American bases in the act of self-defence”.
Attacking the Gulf states was a line Iran didn’t cross in previous rounds of battle, with uncommon assaults on oil infrastructure remaining unclaimed.
Gulf states had beforehand tried to stop the Trump administration from attacking Iran, scared of blowback and unintended penalties destabilising the nation of 93 million.
Imposing materials prices on Gulf states, secure kingdoms unused to wars of their again yards, might be to get the monarchies to place stress on Trump to halt the bombing marketing campaign.
Some of the ruling households, such as the al-Thani household in Qatar and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, have shut relationships with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who has a heavy hand in shaping the president’s Middle East coverage.
Conversely, some analysts warned concentrating on the Gulf kingdoms might backfire, alienating voices that had been beforehand lobbying the US to rethink its army marketing campaign on Iran.
