LOUD explosions were heard in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and the Qatari capital of Doha for a third consecutive day of Iranian retaliatory strikes on neighbouring Gulf states in response to ongoing attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran.
Loud bangs and sirens were also heard in Kuwait early on Monday morning, with a witness quoted by Reuters news agency saying smoke was seen rising from near the US embassy.
Kuwaiti air defences intercepted the majority of the drones near Rumaithiya and Salwa neighbourhoods, the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported, quoting the director general of civil defence.
The country’s Defence Ministry said several US fighters crashed in Kuwait and all crew members survived. A jet was filmed falling from the sky while a pilot appeared to have ejected.
Kuwaiti authorities said search and rescue operations were immediately initiated in coordination with the US, evacuating all crew members and transporting them to a hospital for medical treatment. Their condition was reported as stable.
Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Doha, said footage suggested at least two separate instances in which warplanes crashed in Kuwait. There were also reports of smoke coming from the direction of the US Embassy in Kuwait City, with videos showing rescue crews at the scene.
The Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson has said that Qatar has intercepted Iranian attacks that targeted civilian infrastructure, including the international airport. In an interview with CNN, Majed Al Ansari said that Qatar was not engaging with Iran at the moment.
Tehran said it would target US military assets in the region after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran continued for the third day on Monday.
Iran has hit a range of civilian and commercial areas across Gulf cities, widening the conflict’s impact on key regional aviation and trade hubs.
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior said it activated air raid alerts and urged residents to head to the nearest safe place.
It said the Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Bridge linking the capital, Manama, to nearby towns was closed and urged “residents to use main roads only when necessary”.
The US Embassy in Bahrain warned “terrorist groups and those inspired by such organizations are intent on attacking US citizens abroad” and encouraged US citizens to avoid hotels in Manama, saying they could be targeted.
At least one person has been killed in Kuwait, three have been killed in the UAE, and 16 people have been injured in Qatar.
Meanwhile, at least 555 people have been killed in Iran in US-Israeli attacks, while at least nine have been killed and 121 wounded in Israel.
Saudi state television said on Monday that authorities have temporarily shut down the Ras Tanura refinery near Dammam after a drone attack. Earlier, the country’s Ministry of Defence said in reports carried by Saudi state-run SPA news agency that two drones that “attempted to attack” the Ras Tanura refinery were intercepted and destroyed.
A “small” fire broke out as a result of the debris falling during the interception operation, it said, adding that there were no civilian casualties.
Colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have reported “strong explosions” in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
The US, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE issued a joint statement on Sunday condemning Iranian attacks across the region and affirming their right to self-defence.
Gulf countries “will take all necessary measures to defend their security and stability and to protect their territories, citizens, and residents, including the option of responding to the aggression”, the statement released after a meeting said.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday stressed that Tehran is not seeking confrontation with its Gulf neighbours, telling Al Jazeera that Tehran has “no problem with the countries on the other side of the Persian Gulf”, referring to the Gulf, which is also known as the Arabian Gulf.
Iran maintains “friendly and good neighbourly relations with all of them”, which it is determined to continue, he added.
“What we are doing is in fact an act of self-defence and retaliation to the American aggression against us,” Araghchi said.
“We are not attacking our brothers in the Persian Gulf, we are not attacking our neighbours, but we are attacking American targets,” he added.