Explosions rock Bahrain, Dubai, Jordan and Kuwait as war spreads across Middle East | Dubai
As the war launched by the USA and Israel against Iran rapidly spread to the rest of the Middle East on Saturday, Iran hit the world-famous Fairmont hotel in Dubai and set it on fire.
Residents watched in shock as an Iranian missile crashed into a five-star hotel in Dubai’s luxurious Palm Jumeirah district. Social media videos showed four people injured in a fire near the entrance of the hotel.
One resident said “everyone is very scared” as the situation in Dubai continues to deteriorate.
“There are missile intercept images all over the city,” they said. “I’m packing a suitcase just in case… we won’t be able to leave because the airspace is closed. This is something we were all afraid would happen, and now it has.”
Similar scenes played out elsewhere in the Gulf, previously considered an oasis of stability in the Middle East.
Within hours of the first US and Israeli bombs being dropped, Iran responded with a wide-ranging attack targeting more than six countries, withdrawing places previously untouched by the escalating crisis.
In Bahrain, an Iranian drone flew into a high-rise building in what appeared to be a targeted attack, exploding and engulfing the skyscraper in flames. Previously, the country’s national security agency was also hit by an Iranian missile.
Social media footage also revealed that a missile was seen hitting the massive US naval base in Bahrain. A drone crashed into the country’s main airport in Kuwait, injuring several employees and damaging the facility.
While Iran responded to US and Israeli attacks by bombing the Gulf and Israel, its proxies also joined the fight. In Iraq, bases belonging to the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces were hit by the United States or Israel, killing at least two members of the Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah.
Iranian-backed groups responded by coming to the rescue; Kataib Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen have warned that they will join attacks on US military bases in the region.
Just hours into what Washington is calling Operation Epic Rage, fighting has already expanded far beyond the geographical scope of the previous war in Iran in June 2025, which was almost entirely confined to Israel and Iran.
For citizens in the Middle East, increasing war has led to anxiety and anxiety.
In Lebanon, lines of 10 cars formed at gas stations across the country within an hour of the strike. People at Beirut airport watched as commercial flights were canceled and grocery stores were stocked with more cautious stocking of essentials; The memory of the 2024 war is fresh in Israel’s minds.
All eyes were on Iran-backed group Hezbollah, which had previously said the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a red line.
The group’s statement on Saturday afternoon did not mention whether it would assist its chief patron, Iran, but instead condemned what it described as a violation of the UN charter by the United States and Israel.
Many Lebanese feared that Hezbollah would enter the ongoing conflict, triggering a backlash from Israel, which had signaled through diplomatic channels that it would launch a full-scale offensive against Lebanon if Hezbollah got involved.
The explosions shook the rest of the Middle East as Israel stopped ballistic missiles from Iran better than any other country. Fires broke out in the city of Irbid in northern Jordan as a result of missile shrapnel falling from the sky and catching fire.
The attacks prompted condemnation from Arab states in the region for the violation of their sovereignty by Iran. While Qatar described Iran’s attacks on its territory as a “direct attack on national security”, it warned that it and other Gulf countries also had the right to respond.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with NBC that he told the Gulf countries that “we had no intention of attacking them, but we actually attacked American bases in self-defense.”
Attacking Gulf states has been a line Iran has not crossed in past rounds of conflict, and rare attacks on oil infrastructure have also gone unclaimed.
Gulf states have previously tried to stop the Trump administration from attacking Iran, fearing backlash and unintended consequences that would destabilize the country of 93 million people.
Imposing material costs on the Gulf states, stable kingdoms unaccustomed to wars in their backyard, could be a way to get the monarchies to pressure Trump to halt the bombing campaign.
Some ruling families, such as the Al-Thani family in Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, have close relations with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has had a major hand in shaping Middle East policy.
Conversely, some analysts have warned that targeting the Gulf kingdoms could backfire and alienate voices that have previously lobbied for the United States to reconsider its military campaign against Iran.
