DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Kuwaiti oil refinery came under Iranian drone attack early Friday and sirens in Israel warned of incoming fire, while explosions boomed over Tehran from Israeli strikes as the country marked the Persian New Year.
The war that has rocked the global economy neared the end of its third wee k with Iran showing no signs of letting up on its attacks on Gulf region energy structure. Kuwait said two waves of drone strikes at its Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery sparked a fire and crews were working to control the blaze.
The refinery, which can process some 730,000 barrels of oil per day, was already damaged Thursday in another Iranian attack. It is one of three oil refineries in Kuwait, a tiny, oil-rich nation on the Persian Gulf.
Iran stepped up its attacks on energy sites in Gulf Arab states after Israel on Wednesday bombed Iran’s massive South Pars offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf.
Loud explosions could also be heard in Jerusalem after the Israeli army warned of incoming Iranian missiles.
In a rare statement, the country's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said Iran's enemies need to have their “security” taken away. Khamenei hasn’t been seen since he succeeded his father, the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war.
His remarks came in a statement issued on his behalf and sent to President Masoud Pezeshkian, after Israel killed Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib earlier this week.
Explosions shake Dubai and warehouse in Bahrain set ablaze
Heavy explosions shook Dubai as air defenses intercepted early incoming fire over the city, where people were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and mosques made the day’s first call to prayers.
Bahrain's Interior Ministry said a fire broke out after shrapnel from an intercepted projectile landed on a warehouse, and Saudi Arabia reported shooting down multiple drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.
The renewed attacks came after an intense day that saw Iran hit energy infrastructure around the region and launch more than a dozen missile salvos at Israel following the attack on South Pars.
South Pars, the Iranian part of the world’s largest gas field, is located offshore in the Persian Gulf and owned jointly with Qatar. With some 80% of power generated in Iran coming from natural gas, the attack posed a direct threat to the country’s electricity supplies.
Fears grow of global energy crisis
Late Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would hold off on any further attacks on the gas field at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump after the Iranian response sent oil prices skyrocketing.
The Israeli prime minister also claimed Iran’s capability to produce ballistic missiles had been taken out, but the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted in comments released Friday that they were still in production.
“We are producing missiles even during war conditions, which is amazing, and there is no particular problem in stockpiling,” spokesman Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini was quoted as saying in Iran’s state-run IRAN newspaper.
Naeini, who was killed early Friday in an airstrike, according to Iranian state television, said Iran had no intention of seeking a quick end to the war.
“These people expect the war to continue until the enemy is completely exhausted,” he said. “This war must end when the shadow of war is lifted from the country.”
Beyond Iran's attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbors, its stranglehold on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and other critical goods are transported, has caused rising concerns of a global energy crisis.
Brent crude oil, the international standard, which spiked to more than $119 a barrel during Iran's attacks Thursday, was around $107 in morning trading on Friday, up more than 47% since Israel and the United States attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the conflict.
Sirens in Israel and explosions in Tehran
In Israel, sirens sounded early Friday warning of attacks on Jerusalem and on the north of the country, sending people again scrambling to shelters. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Not long after Israel announced that it had begun new strikes on Iran, the sound of explosions were heard in Tehran, as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Year. No further details were immediately available.
Associated Press journalists in Tehran heard more airstrikes targeting the capital just before noon.
In addition to steadily striking Iran, Israel has regularly hit Lebanon, targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah.
On Friday, it broadened its attacks to Syria, saying it hit infrastructure there in response to attacks on the minority Druze population in southern Sweida province. Syria’s state-run SANA news agency did not immediately acknowledge the attack.
Israel, which has a significant Druze population, previously has intervened in defense of the Druze in Syria, launching dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters and even striking the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in central Damascus.
More than 1,300 people in Iran have been killed during the war. Israeli strikes against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon have displaced more than 1 million people, according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 1,000 people have been killed. Israel says it has killed more than 500 Hezbollah militants.
In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. Four people were also killed in the occupied West Bank by an Iranian missile strike.
At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.
UAE arrests five accused of attempting to undermine country's financial stability
The UAE said Friday it disrupted what it called “a terrorist network funded and operated by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran.”
It arrested five men accused of laundering money, alleging they were "operating within the country under a fictitious commercial cover” that sought to carry out schemes that would threaten the country’s financial stability.
It published images of five prisoners on its state-run WAM news agency, without identifying them.
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Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Florida, and Sam Mednick in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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