In Dubai, black smoke was hanging over the city’s financial hub after Iranian strikes [AFP via Getty Images]
Two people were killed by Iranian drones in Oman on Friday as Tehran continues its strikes across the Gulf, amid the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran.
The two dead, both expatriates, were among several wounded after an unmanned aerial drone “crashed” in the Al-Awahi industrial zone, according to state media. A second drone fell with no casualties reported.
Oman has been attacked several times over the past two weeks and has so far refused to attribute blame, but it comes amid hundreds of Iranian drone and rocket strikes on Gulf cities.
Iranian attacks on Saudi Arabia continued on Friday, with the defence ministry saying it downed a drone “during an attempt to approach the Diplomatic Quarter” of Riyadh.
Several drones heading towards Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter were also intercepted, the defence ministry said, where the Shaybah oil field is based.
In the UAE, AFP video footage showed black smoke hanging over Dubai’s financial district, with a blast previously being reported in the city.
Turkey’s defence ministry said that air defences took down a third Iranian ballistic missile fired towards the country, with air raid sirens sounding at NATO’s Incirlik base during the incident.
On Thursday, Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to continue striking US bases and keep up the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which, alongside strikes on oil facilities, has pushed the price of Brent Crude above $100.
Following the speech, said on Friday that any new anti-regime protests would be met with a stronger response than in January, when thousands of people were killed.
Israel has launched renewed strikes on Iran, with the Israeli military striking over 200 targets across western and central Iran.
Strikes hit the cities of Tehran, Shiraz and Ahvaz, with Israel claiming to have targeted ballistic missile manufacturing and storage sites. Explosions were also heard in Tehran close to pro-government rallies held for Al-Quds Day in the morning.
Some 3.2 million Iranians have been displaced by the war, according to the UN, while at least 1,348 have been killed.
Trump said once again on his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening that the US was “winning” the war, stating that “Iran’s navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth.”
“Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,” he added.
However, criticism over the war and its effect on the global economy mounts in the US.
At least four US service personnel were killed after their KC-135 refuelling aircraft crashed in Iraq on Thursday night, according to the US military, which added that the incident involved another aircraft and denied it was lost due to hostile or friendly fire.
An Iran-backed militia group, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, claimed it had shot down the aircraft “in defence of our country’s sovereignty and airspace.”
Eleven US service personnel have been killed since the beginning of the war, with at least 150 more injured, according to Reuters.
A French soldier was also killed and five others wounded on Thursday night in a strike on Erbil. Although it is not known who conducted the strikes, a pro-Iranian militia has said French interests in Iraq would be targeted.
