Iran Missile and Drone Barrage Hits All Six Gulf States After U.S.–Israeli Strike Kills Khamenei

The first flashes over Dubai looked, for a moment, like another choreographed light show. Then the sirens started.

Residents filmed arcs of interceptor fire streaking over the emirate’s towers, followed by dull booms and a curl of smoke near Dubai International Airport. In Doha, people crowded apartment windows as orange glows lit the horizon and phone alerts urged everyone to stay indoors. Across Manama, Kuwait City and the Saudi oil hub of Ras Tanura, a region long accustomed to watching other people’s wars suddenly found itself under fire.

Over six days beginning Feb. 28, Iran launched waves of missiles and drones at all six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — in retaliation for large-scale U.S.–Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The barrages hit or targeted American bases, refineries, airports, ports and residential neighborhoods, killing and injuring civilians and U.S. personnel and disrupting some of the world’s busiest aviation and energy corridors.

The unprecedented attacks have jolted the Gulf into a rare show of unity and drawn Europe more explicitly into the region’s security calculations. In an emergency meeting on March 1, Gulf foreign ministers declared that security in the bloc is “indivisible” and that an attack on one state “constitutes a direct attack on all.” Four days later, GCC and European Union ministers met in Brussels and issued a joint statement “strongly” condemning what they called “unjustifiable Iranian attacks against the GCC countries,” endorsing the Gulf states’ right to self-defense and pledging closer cooperation to protect airspace and sea lanes.

A regional war crosses the Gulf

The strikes on the Gulf followed a dramatic escalation in the long-running confrontation between Iran and its adversaries.

On the morning of Feb. 28, Israel and the United States carried out coordinated strikes deep inside Iran that targeted senior leadership, missile infrastructure and air defenses. Iranian officials confirmed that Khamenei was killed, a historic blow that Tehran described as an attempt at regime change.

Within hours, Iran announced what it cast as retaliatory barrages against Israel, U.S. bases in several countries and what it called “supporting” facilities across the region. Ballistic missiles and drones were fired toward Jordan, Iraq and multiple Gulf states.

Gulf governments say they had warned Iran they would not allow their territories or airspace to be used to launch attacks against it. The GCC’s March 1 communique said member states had “affirmed to the Islamic Republic of Iran their rejection of the use of their territories, territorial waters, and airspace in any military operations.” The same statement said Iran nonetheless launched “attacks using missiles and drones” against all six GCC members beginning Feb. 28.

Iranian authorities have said their response was legitimate self-defense against the U.S. and Israel and that their forces primarily targeted foreign military installations. In some cases, including Oman, Iranian officials have denied ordering strikes at all.

Dubai, Doha and beyond under fire

Among the hardest hit was the United Arab Emirates, home to major American and other foreign forces as well as global aviation and trade hubs.

UAE officials said that by March 4, air defenses had confronted roughly 186 to 189 ballistic missiles and more than 800 drones launched from Iran. Authorities reported minor damage at Dubai International Airport after a drone attack and said debris from an interception near the Burj Al Arab hotel caused a small external fire that was quickly contained.

The cost in lives fell heaviest on foreign workers. Emirati officials said at least three laborers from Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh were killed and dozens of people from various countries were injured in the strikes.

“We reiterate that the UAE is not a party to the ongoing war and has not allowed its territory, waters, or airspace to be used to launch attacks against Iran,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, echoing a theme repeated across the Gulf.

Qatar, which hosts Al Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military installation in the region, reported repeated missile and drone attacks over several days. Officials said Qatari and allied air defenses intercepted multiple waves, including an early barrage of around 65 missiles and a dozen drones.

Iranian projectiles or debris sparked fires in industrial and logistics zones around Doha and Al Rayyan, and authorities briefly halted some liquefied natural gas operations at facilities in Mesaieed and Ras Laffan as a precaution. Health officials reported at least 16 people injured by falling debris in the initial strikes.

Tehran publicly claimed it had not targeted Qatar. Doha rejected that assertion.

“Qatar did not receive any prior notification from Iran of these attacks,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told reporters. “Such an attack cannot go unanswered, and Iran’s denial that Qatar was targeted is not consistent with the facts on the ground.”

In Saudi Arabia, missiles and drones struck near U.S. facilities and at the Ras Tanura refinery on the kingdom’s Gulf coast, one of the world’s largest oil-processing complexes. State media reported a fire at the site that was swiftly controlled. In Riyadh, a drone attack on the U.S. Embassy compound caused a limited blaze and material damage, according to regional defense monitors.

Bahrain, the tiny island state that hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters, reported intercepting dozens of incoming missiles and drones on Feb. 28. Images verified by local and international media showed damaged apartment blocks and shattered windows in Manama. Officials did not immediately release casualty figures, but regional tolls indicated dozens killed in Iranian strikes across multiple countries, including Bahrain.

Kuwait said missiles and drones hit or targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base, where U.S. forces are stationed, and Kuwait International Airport. The Health Ministry reported at least one civilian dead and 32 injured, nine of them at the airport. U.S. officials confirmed American service members were killed in Iranian drone attacks in Kuwait, though they did not provide detailed numbers.

In Oman, reports and satellite imagery indicated strikes on ports at Duqm and Salalah and attacks on two tankers off Muscat and near the northern exclave of Musandam, leaving one crew member dead and several injured. Iran’s armed forces general staff publicly denied ordering attacks on Omani territory, calling Oman a “friendly neighbor,” while not commenting in detail on incidents at sea.

GCC closes ranks, Europe steps in

Faced with a barrage reaching into all six capitals, the Gulf monarchies moved quickly to frame the response as a collective one.

Meeting by videoconference on March 1, the GCC Ministerial Council described Iran’s missile and drone attacks as a “serious violation” of sovereignty, good-neighborly relations and the U.N. Charter. The communique said the strikes caused “extensive damage to civilian facilities, service sites and residential areas” and posed a “grave threat” to citizens and residents.

Most notably, the council underscored a long-standing but rarely tested principle.

“The security of GCC member states is indivisible. Any attack against any member state constitutes a direct attack on all GCC countries.”

The statement explicitly cited the bloc’s Joint Defense Agreement and affirmed the “right of member states, individually and collectively, to self-defense” under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, reserving the “legal right to respond to this aggression.”

Four days later in Brussels, foreign ministers from the GCC and the European Union issued a joint statement that adopted much of the same language and went further. The ministers “strongly condemned the unjustifiable Iranian attacks against the GCC countries” and called on Tehran to “cease immediately its attacks.”

EU ministers said they recognized “the inherent right of the GCC states, individually and collectively, to defend themselves in accordance with Article 51 of the U.N. Charter against armed attacks.” They highlighted the need to safeguard regional airspace and maritime routes, including the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, and referenced EU naval missions such as Operation Aspides and Operation Atalanta as platforms for protecting shipping and energy flows.

The statement also linked the current crisis to longer-term concerns, reiterating EU worries about Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic missiles and “destabilising activities in the region and in Europe.”

Competing claims of self-defense

At the United Nations, Secretary-General António Guterres condemned both the initial U.S.–Israeli strikes on Iran and Iran’s subsequent attacks on Gulf and other states, warning that repeated violations of sovereignty risked spiraling into a wider regional war.

The United States and Israel have argued that their operation inside Iran was an act of self-defense aimed at an “intolerable” missile threat. Iran says its strikes on U.S. and Israeli targets and on the Gulf states that host American forces were a legitimate response to the killing of its leader and the bombing of its territory.

Gulf governments insist they were not party to the original attacks on Iran and that their infrastructure — from Dubai’s airport to Qatar’s LNG terminals and Bahrain’s residential areas — cannot be considered lawful military targets.

Legal experts say the crisis highlights unresolved questions in international law about when states that host foreign forces become parties to an armed conflict and under what conditions they can be targeted. With Washington, Tel Aviv, Tehran and now the GCC all invoking Article 51, the norm of self-defense has rarely been stretched across so many actors at once.

Lives and markets disrupted

Beyond the legal arguments, the strikes have exposed how much of the global economy runs through a narrow strip of Gulf shoreline.

Temporarily reduced output at Qatar’s gas terminals and the fire at Ras Tanura rattled already tense energy markets. Tanker attacks off Oman and missile activity across the northern Gulf added to insurance costs and raised the prospect of rerouted shipping around the Arabian Peninsula. Widespread airspace restrictions over parts of the Middle East forced airlines to cancel or divert scores of flights, stranding travelers in and around hubs such as Dubai and Doha.

Inside those cities, the human costs were unevenly distributed. Many of the casualties in the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait were migrant workers from South Asia and elsewhere, whose dormitories and work sites often sit near industrial zones and critical infrastructure. Community groups described confusion and fear as workers huddled in makeshift shelters with little direct information.

Gulf governments urged residents to follow official channels and avoid spreading rumors on social media. But raw footage of interceptions and explosions — often shot by migrant workers — spread quickly online, offering a different vantage point from carefully controlled state broadcasts.

The psychological impact may linger even if the missiles stop. For years, glittering skylines and booming airlines helped Gulf rulers sell their societies as insulated from the region’s instability. The sight of interceptor trails arcing above skyscrapers has undercut that narrative.

Whether the shock leads to a more formalized security architecture tying the Gulf more closely to Europe and the United States, or simply ushers in a new, uneasy equilibrium with Iran, remains unclear. For now, residents of cities built on the promise of safety are listening for sirens and wondering when — or if — the skies will fall quiet again.