Explosions rocked the centre of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on 16 July, Reuters reports, citing eyewitnesses. No further details of the incident have yet been reported, but over the past week Iran has repeatedly launched attacks on its regional neighbours, whom it considers to be US allies.
Earlier this week, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its “strong condemnation” of Iran’s attacks on several Arab countries, holding Tehran responsible for the “consequences of continuing these brutal attacks”.
In a statement dated 14 July, Riyadh specifically mentioned strikes on a number of border posts in Kuwait, an offshore drilling platform owned by the Kuwaiti Oil Company, and attacks on the Consulate-General of Kuwait in the Iraqi city of Basra.
Referring to Iran’s attacks on Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar and two oil tankers from the United Arab Emirates whilst passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the Saudi Arabian government criticised “Iran’s constant threat to regional security and stability”.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) issued a statement announcing a new wave of strikes against Iran, just a few hours after confirming that it had completed overnight strikes on military targets in the country.
“These strikes are intended to further degrade the military capabilities of Iranian forces that they have used to attack commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz,” – according to a CENTCOM post on social media platform X, which also stated that the strikes took place on 15 July at 06:00 Eastern Time.
Prior to this, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed to have carried out strikes against US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, in particular those used by the US Fifth Fleet, whilst the Jordanian Armed Forces reported on 15 July that they had intercepted and shot down three Iranian missiles.