As concerns of a larger battle grow, Iran's retaliation attacks on US sites in the region continue for a second day.
As Iran carries out assaults in retaliation for attacks by the United States and Israel that murdered its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials, more explosions have been reported throughout the Gulf states.
On Sunday morning, the explosions were heard for the second time in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates; Manama, the capital of Bahrain; and Doha, the capital of Qatar. This raised concerns about a wider confrontation in an area that was once seen to be a safe haven in an otherwise unstable Middle East.
In the south of the city, witnesses in Doha described seeing thick black smoke rising over the clear morning horizon and hearing many loud bangs.
The regional business center of Dubai was rocked by another round of blasts shortly after. While billows of dark smoke rose above the city's port of Jebel Ali, one of the busiest in the Middle East, puffs of white smoke from missile interceptions were seen in the city's skies.
At least four powerful explosions were recorded by witnesses in Manama. The explosions on Sunday did not immediately result in any reports of damage or injury.
The explosions followed a day of comparable Iranian attacks against US military installations and other assets throughout the Gulf, with the exception of Oman, which was mediating the US-Iranian nuclear negotiations.
Together, the oil and gas-rich Arab nations, which are located just across the Gulf from Iran, are home to thousands of US soldiers.
According to the UAE's Ministry of Defense, Iran fired 209 drones and 137 missiles throughout the country on Saturday, causing smoke and fire to spread to the Palm Jumeirah and Burj al-Arab, two iconic buildings in Dubai.
At least one person was killed and seven people were injured at the airport in Abu Dhabi during what the facility's authorities described as a "event." The airports in Kuwait and Dubai, which is the busiest for international travel, were also affected.
Iran launched 12 drones and 65 missiles into the Gulf state on Saturday, according to Qatari officials. The majority of the strikes were intercepted, but 16 people were hurt.
According to Al Jazeera Arabic, Jordan's defense systems intercepted missiles that entered the airspace of the country's northern regions and capital, Amman. The network said sirens were also heard in Kuwait.
According to local media, a drone crashed close to Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq, sending a thick cloud of smoke skyward. As part of an international coalition against ISIL (ISIS), the US is said to still have troops in the autonomous Kurdish area of Iraq.
"A serious offense"
Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of Iran, has called Khamenei's death "a huge atrocity." The combined US-Israeli attacks also claimed the life of Abdul Rahim Mousavi, the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces.
"You [US and Israel] have crossed our red line and must pay the price," Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, stated in a televised speech on Sunday. "We will inflict such terrible blows that you yourselves will be pushed to beg," he said.
Trump claimed that if Iran retaliates for the murder of Khamenei, who ruled the Middle Eastern country for 37 years, the US will strike it "with a ferocity that has never been seen before."
Trump wrote on Truth Social, "Iran just said that they are going to hit extremely hard today, harder than they have ever been hit before." But if they do, we will hit them with a force that has never been seen before, so they would better not do that!
Over 200 people died in Iran
Early on Sunday, Israel's military declared that it had attacked over 30 targets in western and central Iran and that it will continue to strike Iranian military headquarters, missile facilities, air defense installations, and other "regime targets."
At least 201 people have died in Iran since Saturday, including at least 148 who were slain in an attack on an elementary school for girls in the southern city of Minab.
The Israeli Tel Nof airbase, the Israeli army's command center at HaKirya in Tel Aviv, a sizable defense industrial complex in the city, and 27 US bases were the targets of retaliation attacks, according to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Following a string of explosions heard just after 6 a.m. local time (03:00 GMT), air raid sirens were frequently blasted throughout Israel, including in Tel Aviv.
As his supporters took to the streets in Tehran and other cities in sorrow, the Iranian authorities announced the creation of a three-person interim council to supervise the transition following the death of their supreme leader.
In addition to the 40 days of mourning that the government had previously planned, Pezeshkian additionally announced seven days of public holidays.
