Blasts heard over Dubai and Doha for second day, with Duqm port also targeted

Written by: Maha El Dahan and Andrew Mills

DUBAI, March 1 (Reuters) – As retaliatory attacks against neighboring Gulf countries expanded in response to the US and Israel’s attacks on the Islamic Republic, loud explosions were heard in Dubai and Qatar’s capital Doha for the second day on Sunday, and Oman was hit for the first time.

Iran had said it would target US bases in the region, but it has also hit a number of other targets in Gulf cities.

In the statement made by the Dubai media office, it was stated that two people were injured when shrapnel from unmanned aerial vehicles fell on two houses while they were stopped in Dubai.

Dubai’s international airport, the landmark Burj Al Arab hotel and the man-made Palm Jumeirah Island were damaged.

Thick clouds of black smoke continued to rise from the Jebel Ali port area; One of the docks here caught fire on Sunday from debris from a captured missile.

In neighboring Oman, which escaped retaliation on Saturday, the commercial port of Duqm was targeted by two drones and one worker was injured, the state news agency said.

Dubai is the largest tourism and commercial center in the Middle East and its airport is one of the world’s busiest travel hubs.

Qatar’s interior ministry said on Sunday it had responded to a limited fire in an industrial zone after debris fell from an intercepted missile.

(Reporting by Maha El Dahan in Dubai and Andrew Mills in Doha. Editing by Edmund Blair, ​Christian Schmollinger and David Goodman)