More explosions have been heard across the Gulf states, and at least three people have been killed in the United Arab Emirates as Iran carries out attacks in retaliation for strikes by the United States and Israel that killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other top officials.
The explosions were heard for a second day on Sunday in Dubai, the UAE; Bahrain’s capital, Manama; and Qatar’s capital, Doha, raising fears of a wider conflict in a region long seen as a haven of peace and security in an otherwise turbulent Middle East.
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Witnesses in Doha reported hearing several loud bangs and seeing thick, black smoke rising on the clear morning horizon in the south of the city.
Shortly afterwards, another wave of explosions reverberated through Dubai, a regional business hub. Puffs of white smoke from missile interceptions were seen in the city’s skies while billows of dark smoke rose over Jebel Ali, one of the busiest ports in the Middle East.
The three people killed in the UAE attacks were Pakistani, Nepalese and Bangladeshi nationals, the Ministry of Defence in Abu Dhabi said.
Explosions were also reported in Manama with witnesses reporting at least four loud explosions. There was no immediate report of any damage or injuries from Sunday’s blasts.
Later in the day, the Oman News Agency reported that the Duqm commercial port, located in the Al Wusta Governorate in central Oman, was struck by two drones. It reported that an expatriate worker was injured in the attack.
The attack on Oman, which had been mediating negotiations between Iran and the US before the US and Israel launched their attacks on Saturday, was condemned by the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the strike on Oman “is an attack on the very principle of mediation”.
The explosions came after a day of similar Iranian strikes on bases used by the US military and other US assets across the Gulf.
Thousands of US soldiers are deployed in the oil- and gas-rich Arab states lying just across the Gulf from Iran.
On Saturday, Iran fired 137 missiles and 209 drones across the UAE, its Ministry of Defence said, with fires and smoke reaching the Dubai landmarks of Palm Jumeirah and Burj al-Arab.
At Abu Dhabi’s airport, at least one person was killed and seven wounded during what the facility’s authority called an “incident”. Dubai’s airport, the world’s busiest for international traffic, and Kuwait’s airport were also hit.
A yacht sails past a plume of smoke rising from the port of Jebel Ali after a reported Iranian attack on Dubai on March 1, 2026 [AFP]
Meanwhile, Qatari officials said Iran launched 65 missiles and 12 drones towards the Gulf state on Saturday, most of which were intercepted, but 16 people were injured in the attacks.
Elsewhere in the region, Jordanian defence systems intercepted missiles that entered the airspace of the capital, Amman, and the country’s northern areas, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. Sirens were also heard in Kuwait, the network reported.
In northern Iraq, a drone crashed near Erbil International Airport, according to local media reports, with a large plume of smoke rising. The US is reported to still have soldiers in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, whose capital is Erbil, as part of an international coalition against ISIL (ISIS).
Turkiye’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spoke by phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday, expressing concern that, “unless the necessary intervention is made”, the conflict unfolding in Iran could have “serious” regional and global implications.
The leaders of the E3 (UK, France and Germany) condemned ongoing Iranian attacks on bases used by US forces in the region and said Iran’s attacks had targeted allies and were “threatening our service personnel and our civilians across the region.”
“We call on Iran to stop these reckless attacks immediately. We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source,” a joint statement read, adding that they had agreed to work with the US and allies in the region.
Meanwhile, a US official told Al Jazeera that Washington expected the conflict with Iran to “last for weeks, not just days” and it will continue until it can guarantee Iran does not possess nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles.
‘A great crime’
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has denounced Khamenei’s killing “as a great crime”. The Iranian military’s chief of staff, Abdul Rahim Mousavi, has also been killed in the US-Israeli attacks.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said in a televised address on Sunday that “you [the US and Israel] have crossed our red line and must pay the price.” “We will deliver such devastating blows that you yourselves will be driven to beg,” he said.
Trump said the US will hit Iran “with a force that has never been seen before” if the Middle East nation hits back over the killing of Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years.
“Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever been hit before,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”
More than 200 people killed in Iran
Israel’s military early on Sunday said it had struck more than 30 targets in attacks on western and central Iran, announcing that strikes would continue on Iranian air defence installations, missile sites, military headquarters and other “regime targets”.
Since Saturday, at least 201 people have been killed in Iran, including at least 148 people in an attack on an elementary girls school in the southern city of Minab.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was carrying out retaliatory attacks on 27 military bases where US soldiers are deployed, the Israeli Tel Nof Airbase, the Israeli army’s command headquarters at HaKirya in Tel Aviv and a large defence industrial complex in the city.
Emergency crews work at a building damaged in a reported overnight Iranian attack in Tel Aviv on March 1, 2026 [AFP]
Shortly after 6am (03:00 GMT), air raid sirens were repeatedly sounded across Israel, including in Tel Aviv, after a series of explosions were heard.
The Iranian government has announced the formation of a three-person interim council to oversee the transition after the death of the supreme leader as his supporters took to the streets of Tehran and other cities in mourning.
Pezeshkian also declared seven days of public holidays in addition to the 40 days of mourning announced by the government.
