Loud Explosions Heard Across Dubai, Doha As Iran Continues Retaliation

Loud explosions were heard tonight across Dubai and Doha as Iran continued its drone and missile attacks on nations in the Middle East where the US military has a presence. Explosions reverberated in the Qatari capital and in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, while two residents told news agency AFP they heard explosions in Abu Dhabi too.

The US and Israeli attacks on Iran which began on Saturday, followed by Iranian counterattacks on Gulf states and Israel, have prompted several countries to shut their airspace.

The Iranian strikes came hours after US and Israeli strikes hit targets across Tehran on Tuesday, as President Donald Trump warned it was "too late" for Iran to seek talks to escape a war now in its fourth day.

Drones and missiles crashed into oil facilities and US embassies in the Gulf as the Islamic republic retaliated, and Israel pushed troops deeper into Lebanon to battle the Tehran-backed Hezbollah after it entered the fray.

Israel announced a "large-scale wave" of strikes targeting Iran's capital Tuesday, with local media showing columns of smoke rising over the centre of town - home to many government buildings - and reporting an attack on one of the city's two airports.

"Their air defence, air force, navy, and leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said: 'Too late!'," Trump posted on social media, two days after he said he was open to talks and four days after US and Israeli strikes killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran's ambassador to the UN in Geneva denied that his country had approached the US for talks.

According to Iranian media, US and Israeli strikes targeted a building on Tuesday in Qom belonging to the committee that is to elect a new supreme leader. The Tasnim news agency reported that strikes had already targeted the body's main headquarters in Tehran the day before.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said the UN Security Council "has a duty" to act to stop the war, even as its military has remained publicly defiant in the face of the campaign. A spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards warned "the gates of hell will open more and more" upon the US and Israel.

A Guards general, Ebrahim Jabbari, said that if Iran's foes "hit our main centres, we will hit all economic centres in the region".

Flights Affected

At least 12,903 flights were cancelled between Saturday and Monday as a result, representing 40 percent of planned flights, according to aviation data analysis firm Cirium.

Earlier today, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard general warned that continued US-Israeli attacks would see Iran conduct reprisals against "all economic centres" in the Middle East.

"We are saying to the enemy that if it decides to hit our main centres, we will hit all economic centres in the region," said Ebrahim Jabbari.

"We have closed the Strait of Hormuz. Currently, the price of oil is above $80 and will soon reach $200," he was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency ISNA, as Brent crude climbed above $85 for the first time since July 2024.

Attacks On Iran Today

Israel's military said it struck Iranian industrial sites used to produce weapons, "particularly ballistic missiles". Tehran's Mehrabad airport - located inside the capital and which mainly handles domestic flights - was targeted by strikes, according to the Mehr news agency.

Israel's military said it had launched a new "large scale" wave of strikes on the capital "targeting the Iranian terror regime's infrastructure in Tehran".

Iranian media said central Tehran was struck, as well as the religious city of Qom to the south, where the building used by the official body that elect Iran's new supreme leader was hit.

With inputs from AFP