BAGHDAD: Drones hit an airport and oil facilities in southern Iraq on Friday, while in the north strikes and explosions mainly targeted Iranian militants.
In Iraq’s southern Basra province, “a drone crashed into the cargo terminal at Basra airport,” a security official told AFP.
Two others hit a US company in the Burjesia oil complex, and a fourth struck the Rumaila oil field, where energy major BP operates, the official added, without being able to identify the perpetrators.
Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, has said it did not want to be dragged into the war engulfing the Middle East. But it has not been spared.
Iraq was drawn into the war from the outset, with strikes blamed on the United States and Israel targeting Iran-backed groups in Iraq which have vowed not to remain neutral and which have claimed attacks on US bases in the country and in the region.
The northern autonomous Kurdistan region, which hosts US troops, has been a main target of attacks.
Explosions sounded on Friday near the airport in Kurdistan’s capital Irbil, where drones have been repeatedly intercepted.
Kurdistan’s natural resources ministry said Friday that oil production at an oil field operated by US firm HKN Energy had been halted following an attack a day earlier in Dohuk province.
It said the strike was launched from areas in federal Iraq, and urged Baghdad to prevent such attacks on the northern region’s civilians, economic infrastructure, and its oil and gas sector.
A security source told AFP the attack was carried out with two drones.
In Irbil, construction worker Abdulmajid Ibrahim, 38, said he fears the “war will last for a long time.”
Iraq’s Kurdistan also hosts camps and rear-bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups, which Iran has struck repeatedly since the start of the war.
Tehran threatened Friday to target “all the facilities” of the region if Kurdish Iranian militants were allowed to enter Iran.
So far, no forces have entered Iran, several sources from the opposition told AFP on Thursday.
On Friday, fresh strikes hit the Kurdish militants, said an official from the exiled Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.
“Our bases are under attack from the Iranian enemy,” the PDKI official told AFP.
Iranian Kurds pin their hopes on the war weakening the Islamic republic and may even go so far as to ally with the United States.
Drones hit oil sites, target militants in Iraq
https://arab.news/4wh7e
Drones hit oil sites, target militants in Iraq
- In Iraq’s southern Basra province, “a drone crashed into the cargo terminal at Basra airport,” a security official told AFP
- Two others hit a US company in the Burjesia oil complex, and a fourth struck the Rumaila oil field
Kuwait airport targeted as Iran presses on with attacks on Gulf states
KUWAIT CITY/DUBAI: Gulf nations on Sunday reported new missile and drone attacks, while Iran vowed to press on with strikes against neighboring countries as the war entered its second week.
Kuwait’s defense ministry and Kuwait's Public Authority for Civil Aviation said that the country’s forces were “responding to a wave of hostile drones” that penetrated the country’s airspace.
“The fuel tanks of Kuwait International Airport were attacked by drones in a direct targeting of vital infrastructure,” the defense ministry spokesman said, according to a post by the Kuwaiti military on X.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defense was also reporting a wave of drone attacks, saying 21 unmanned aerial vehicles were intercepted and destroyed in the last four hours.
Major General Turki Al-Maliki, spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said in separate posts on X that 13 drones were intercepted and destroyed east of the national capital, Riyadh city, while eight drones were shot down just after entering Saudi air space.
Before midnight on Saturday, loud explosions were heard in Dubai, the Qatari capital Doha and Bahrain’s Manama, with attacks reported in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, where the national oil company announced a “precautionary” cut to production.
The attacks came despite Iran’s president earlier apologizing to Gulf countries for earlier strikes. He had said they would no longer be targeted unless strikes were launched from their territory first.
Hours later, Iran said it would continue conducting strikes on sites in Gulf countries which were “at the disposal of the enemy.”
UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a rare televised address that the Emirates were in “a period of war” and “will emerge stronger” from it.
Dubai authorities said Saturday evening one person had been killed by debris from an “aerial interception,” adding they were a Pakistani national.
Dubai airport closed, reopens
Earlier in the day, Dubai closed its main airport — the world’s busiest for international traffic — after authorities said an unidentified object was intercepted nearby.
The government said there had been “a minor incident resulting from the fall of debris after an interception,” without directly mentioning the airport. It said there were no injuries.
The Flightradar24 tracking website earlier showed planes circling above the airport in an apparent holding pattern.
In a statement since deleted from X, Emirates, the largest airline in the Middle East, had announced it was suspending all flights to and from Dubai until further notice, but later said it had resumed operations.
The UAE, a US ally and home to American military installations, has been the most heavily targeted nation in the Gulf during the war.
Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Defense said that of the 16 ballistic missiles fired at the country on Saturday, all but one had been intercepted, with that missile falling into the sea.
Of the 121 drones detected, 119 were brought down, while two fell within Emirati territory.
The barrage brings the number of ballistic missiles detected by the UAE since the start of the war last Saturday to 221, the defense ministry said, with the number of drones surpassing 1,300.
Flights from Dubai’s main airport had partially resumed on Monday despite daily drone attacks targeting sites in the UAE.
Last Saturday, four employees were injured and an airport terminal damaged as the war broke out following US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Iranian attacks have also hit Abu Dhabi airport, the upmarket Palm Jumeirah development and the Burj Al Arab luxury hotel over the past week, while drone debris caused a fire at the US consulate in Dubai on Tuesday.
Relentless air threats
Elsewhere in the Gulf on Saturday, Qatar’s defense ministry said its military had intercepted two missile attacks targeting the country.
Kuwait said Saturday night it had intercepted seven drones since dawn, with the attacks resulting “only in material damage from falling debris.”
And Bahrain said it has intercepted and 92 missiles and 151 drones since the start of the “brutal Iranian aggression.”
AFP journalists heard an explosion Saturday night in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, as authorities said one person was injured after rocket shrapnel fell in a public street.
In Saudi Arabia, the defense ministry said it had destroyed three ballistic missiles heading toward Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts American troops, as well as 17 drones over the Shaybah oil field in the southeast.
Kuwait also reported intercepting a drone, while the country’s national oil company announced a “precautionary” cut to its production of crude due to Iranian attacks and threats to the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for Gulf hydrocarbons.
Further north, Jordan accused Iran of directly targeting sites in the kingdom, saying Tehran had fired 119 missiles and drones in the past week.
“These missiles and drones were targeting vital installations inside Jordan and were not passing through our territories,” said military spokesman Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hayari.
(With AFP)
