Gulf Arab nations came under renewed missile and drone fire Tuesday from Iran, which has been targeting regional oil infrastructure and has vowed not to relinquish its stranglehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Dubai, a major transit hub for international travel, briefly shut its airspace as the United Arab Emirates military said it was “responding to incoming missile and drone threats” around the city, and a man was killed by the debris of a missile intercepted over Abu Dhabi.
Iran kept up the pressure on the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, hitting an oil facility in Fujairah, a UAE emirate on the country’s east coast with the Gulf of Oman that has been repeatedly targeted. State-run WAM news reported that no one had been injured in the blast from the drone strike.
The man killed by falling debris from an intercepted missile was the eighth person to die in the UAE since the start of the war, authorities said.
Iran’s attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported, has given rise to increasing concerns of a global energy crisis. Early Tuesday, it hit a tanker anchored off the coast of Fujairah, one of about 20 vessels hit since Israel and the United States launched their offensive on Iran on February 28.
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Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said his country had been given no choice but to keep up its pressure on shipping traffic in the strait.
A fire and plume of smoke rise after, according to authorities, debris from an intercepted Iranian drone struck an oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, March 14, 2026.(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
“They are flying, launching missiles, should we just sit back and do nothing in response?” he said in an interview on state television.
With Washington under increasing pressure over rising oil prices, Brent crude, the international standard, remained over $100 a barrel, up more than 40% since the war started.
US President Donald Trump said he had demanded that roughly a half-dozen countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. But his appeals brought no immediate commitments, with many saying they are hesitant to get involved in a war with no defined exit plan and skeptical that they could do more than the US Navy.
UAE briefly shuts down airspace
The UAE shut down its airspace early Tuesday as its military reported it was “responding to missile and drone threats from Iran.” The closure was soon lifted, and not long after, the sounds of explosions could be heard as the military worked to intercept incoming fire.
The snap announcement on UAE airspace showed the balancing act Emirati authorities face in trying to keep their long-haul carriers, Emirates and Etihad, flying as Iranian attacks continue to target the country.
In Dubai, an AFP journalist heard three explosions after a cellphone alert warned residents of the UAE’s most populous city to “immediately seek a safe place” over “potential missile threats.”
A man walks past shops in a mall in Dubai, where, amid Iranian attacks, people are beginning to shop for new clothes and gifts ahead of the start of the Eid al-Fitr festival, which marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, on March 16, 2026. (AFP)
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry reported intercepting a dozen drones Tuesday morning over the country’s vast Eastern Province, home to oil infrastructure.
In Qatar, the sounds of explosions boomed over the capital early in the day as defenses worked to intercept incoming fire. Qatar’s Defense Ministry said later that it had successfully thwarted a missile attack on the city, though a fire broke out in an industrial area from a downed projectile.
To the east, an “unknown projectile” struck a tanker off the coast of Oman, a UK maritime agency said, noting there were no reported injuries and only “minor structural damage.”
In Kuwait, security forces were reported to have arrested 16 people suspected to have links to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group in Lebanon.
The interior ministry said in a statement late Monday that the 14 Kuwaiti and two Lebanese suspects sought to “create chaos, and disrupt public order” during the war, the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported.
It said authorities found firearms, ammunition, weapons for training and assassinations and encrypted communication devices and drones.
The ministry said the suspects aimed to recruit others to join Hezbollah.
US Embassy targeted in Baghdad
Attacks from Iran-linked proxy forces continued in Iraq, as the US Embassy in Baghdad was hit with shrapnel from drones that had been intercepted, and a drone attack sparked a fire at a luxury hotel frequented by foreign diplomats in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.
It wasn’t clear who carried out either attack but Iran-allied militias have regularly been attacking American targets inside Iraq since the conflict began.
A separate strike targeted a house in the heavily fortified Presidential Compound in Baghdad’s al-Jadriya area, the officials said.
Four people were reported killed in the strike on the house, which security officials said was hosting Iranian advisers.
The embassy is seen across the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Iraq’s interior ministry initially said that a “projectile” fell on the roof of the luxury al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad’s Green Zone, before clarifying that it was a drone. It did not specify whether the building itself was the target.
“The incident caused no casualties or material damage,” it added.
A street leading to the hotel, which hosts diplomatic missions including the US embassy, was blocked by a large security deployment, with firefighters and ambulances present, according to an AFP correspondent.
Witnesses saw a fire break out on the roof of the hotel.
Shortly after the hotel incident, a loud blast was heard in Baghdad, as air defenses were seen intercepting a drone attack over the US embassy.
The embassy’s air defenses were able to shoot down all four drones targeting the facility, according to two Iraqi security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
A security official told AFP “air defenses thwarted an attack with four rockets” on the embassy.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, head of the armed forces, denounced the attacks — including an earlier strike on a southern oil field — calling them threats to his country’s “security and stability.”
He promised security services would “hunt down the perpetrators of these acts and bring them to justice immediately,” according to a statement from his spokesman, Sabah al-Numan.
