DUBAI — Iran openly threatened a neighboring country’s non-U.S. assets for the first time Saturday, warning people to immediately evacuate the busiest port in the Middle East and two others in the United Arab Emirates as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran entered its third week.
A missile struck a helipad inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, and debris from an intercepted Iranian drone hit an oil facility in the UAE, further increasing global anxiety about oil supplies.
Iran threatened to attack cities in the UAE, home to Dubai and one of the world’s busiest airports, saying the U.S. used “ports, docks and hideouts” there to launch strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island, without providing evidence. It urged people to evacuate areas where it said U.S. forces were sheltering, naming Dubai’s Jebel Ali port — the Mideast’s busiest — as well as Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa port and Fujairah port.
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Arab gulf neighbors during the war, but it said it was targeting U.S. assets, even as hits or attempts were reported on civilian ones such as airports and oil fields.
Associated Press images showed a fire in the Fujairah port that broke out after what authorities said was a drone interception, and smoke rising over the embassy compound in the Iraqi capital.
On Friday, President Trump said the U.S. “obliterated” military sites on Kharg Island, home to the main terminal that handles Iran’s oil exports. He warned that Iran’s oil infrastructure could be next if Tehran continues to interfere with the passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where vessels are backed up and where one-fifth of global oil supplies usually transit.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker has warned that such strikes would provoke a new level of retaliation.
Trump said Saturday on social media that he hopes China, France, Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and others send warships to keep the strait “open and safe.”
Iran continued to launch missile and drone attacks on Israel and neighboring Arab gulf states, and U.S. and Israeli warplanes pummeled military and other targets across Iran. Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis deepened, with nearly 800 people killed and 850,000 displaced, as Israel launched waves of strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Additional U.S. forces
A U.S. official said Friday that 2,500 more Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli are being sent to the Middle East, adding to the military’s largest buildup of warships and aircraft in the region in decades. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.
Marine Expeditionary Units are able to conduct amphibious landings but also specialize in bolstering security at embassies, evacuating civilians and providing disaster relief. The deployment doesn’t necessarily indicate that a ground operation will take place. The Wall Street Journal first reported the Marine deployment.
The Tripoli was spotted by commercial satellites sailing near Taiwan, putting it more than a week away from the waters off Iran.
Earlier in the week, the U.S. Navy had 12 ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and eight destroyers, in the Arabian Sea. The total number of U.S. service members on the ground in the Middle East isn’t clear.
Strikes on Kharg Island
The U.S. strikes on Kharg Island targeted military sites, Trump said on social media.
On Saturday, Iran’s joint military command reiterated its threat to attack U.S.-linked “oil, economic and energy infrastructures” in the region if the Islamic Republic’s oil infrastructure is hit.
Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency said the Kharg Island strikes caused no damage to oil infrastructure. It said they targeted an air defense facility, a naval base, the airport control tower and an offshore oil company’s helicopter hangar.
U.S. Central Command said it destroyed naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and other military sites.
Israel earlier announced another wave of strikes in Iran targeting infrastructure, and said its air force had hit more than 200 targets in the last 24 hours, including missile launchers, defense systems and weapons production sites.
Another attack on U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the strike on the U.S. Embassy’s helipad in Baghdad. The embassy complex, one of the largest U.S. diplomatic facilities in the world, has been repeatedly targeted by rockets and drones fired by Iran-aligned militias.
There was no immediate comment from the embassy. On Friday, it renewed its Level 4 security alert for Iraq, warning that Iran and Iran-aligned militia groups have previously carried out attacks against U.S. citizens, interests and infrastructure and “may continue to target them.”
Gambrell, Mednick, Toropin and Magdy write for the Associated Press and reported from Dubai, Tel Aviv, Washington and Cairo, respectively. AP writers Sally Abou AlJoud, Kareem Chehayeb and Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; Will Weissert at Joint Base Andrews, Md.; and Tia Goldenberg in Washington contributed to this report.
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