A high-rise residential tower in Bahrain. A five-star hotel in Dubai. An oil refinery in Saudi Arabia.
Five days into war, Iran has suffered the greatest destruction and loss of life by far. At the same time, people in the Middle East who worried that the fighting might not be contained to Iran and Israel are getting grim confirmation from the images emerging from the Middle East in the days since the United States and Israel began their attack.
As expected, the missile and drones Iran launched in retaliation targeted both Israel and U.S. military bases in the region — but the destruction did not end there. The barrage has left a trail of damage across the Middle East, touching cities that were left mostly unscathed in past regional conflicts, according to a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and dozens of verified videos posted online.
None of Tehran’s actions have caused the scale of damage and loss of life that have occurred within Iran. But the attacks have shaken the image Gulf nations have built as economic hubs insulated from the tensions of the region.
Residential areas
Across the Gulf, videos show Iranian-made drones hitting apartment complexes.
In Bahrain, verified footage shows the moment a drone slammed into the upper floors of a high-rise residential tower in Manama, igniting a large fire visible across the city’s skyline.
In Dubai, drones hit some of the city’s densely packed residential areas. Videos captured the moment one hit an apartment on the top floor of a residential complex, though no explosion could be seen. At an apartment complex in Dubai’s Al Wasl district, footage shows a large fire and a plume of black smoke in the garden area.
Hotels
Prominent hotels in the Gulf were also caught in the crossfire.
Footage shows an Iranian drone striking the ground near the five-star Fairmont on Dubai’s man-made Palm Jumeirah island, causing a large explosion. The hotel said in a statement that four people in a car park near the hotel had been injured. Other footage shows a fire on the outside of the Burj Al Arab hotel after it was hit by falling debris from an interception.
In Bahrain, home to a major U.S. naval base, video shows a large plume of smoke outside the Crowne Plaza hotel in Manama, and photographs taken later showed structural damage to the building’s facade, including rows of broken windows.
Airports
The fighting grounded flights across the region, and three large international airports, in Dubai, Kuwait and Bahrain, sustained damage.
In Kuwait, videos show damage to the inside of the terminal building at the international airport after it was struck by a drone, according to a spokesperson for the civil aviation authority.
At Dubai International Airport, where a strike injured four people, a dark plume of smoke was seen rising.
Bahrain International Airport was also struck, according to the country’s interior ministry.
Infrastructure and commerce
The strikes also hit commercial and industrial sites across the Middle East, damaging energy infrastructure, shopping areas and warehouses.
Amazon’s cloud computing business said two of its facilities in the United Arab Emirates had been struck by drones and remained “significantly impaired” as of Tuesday morning. A drone also landed close to one of its facilities in Bahrain, damaging the site.
In Jordan, a large munition was filmed burning in the middle of Al Hashemi Street, a busy shopping area of Irbid. In the United Arab Emirates, satellite imagery captured smoke billowing from an industrial area in Sharjah, while videos show a fire at warehouses in an industrial area of Doha in Qatar.
It was unclear what was targeted in the strikes.
On Monday, Iran ratcheted up its military campaign by striking Gulf energy infrastructure and forcing the closure of key production facilities.
In Saudi Arabia, the energy ministry said that a fire had broken out at the Ras Tanura oil refinery, one of the largest crude oil terminals in the world, after fragments of two intercepted Iranian drones fell. Video verified by The New York Times showed a large fire at the facility. Debris also fell on the Kuwait National Petroleum Company, injuring two workers, according to a spokesperson.
In the United Arab Emirates, a fire broke out on Tuesday at a major energy hub in Fujairah, from the falling debris of a downed drone, the authorities said.
Elena Shao contributed reporting.
Leanne Abraham is a graphics editor at The Times with a focus on cartography and data visualization.
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