Overnight, Iran launched a significant assault on Gulf nations, with Bahrain facing the highest toll of casualties since the conflict began.
The Bahraini interior ministry reported that 32 individuals were injured following an Iranian drone strike on Bahrain’s Sitra Island, targeting the Bapco refinery.
According to a statement from the health ministry, as shared by the state news agency, all those injured were Bahraini nationals, with four cases classified as serious, including children.
The injured included a 17-year-old girl who sustained severe injuries to her head and eyes, as well as a two-month-old infant, the ministry detailed.
The ministry further conveyed, “Due to the flagrant Iranian aggression, there have been reports of injuries among citizens, with one being critical, and several homes in Sitra suffered damage from the drone attack.”
Bapco confirmed that while their 405,000-barrel-per-day refinery was struck, fortunately, there were no fatalities.
The state-owned energy company declared force majeure, a legal maneuver that releases a company of its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Bapco ‘hereby serves notice of force majeure on its group operations which have been affected by the ongoing regional conflict in the Middle East and the recent attack on its refinery complex’, said a statement posted by the company.
Smoke rises following a strike on the Bapco Oil Refinery
An injured man sits on the street following Iranian drone strikes in Sitra, Bahrain
Debris lies on the street following Iranian drone strikes in Sitra, Bahrain
Firefighters extinguishing flames after an Iranian projectile struck an industrial area in Ma’ameer, Bahrain
The strike on the refinery comes as oil prices have risen to above $100 a barrel for first time in four years.
An emergency meeting of the G7 has been called, where firefighting options including the release of all oil reserves will be discussed.
Three G7 countries, including the US, have so far expressed support for the idea, according to the Financial Times.
A senior Japanese parliament member said on Sunday that the government instructed a national oil reserve storage site to prepare for a possible release of crude.
Japan relies on the Middle East for around 95% of its crude, with roughly 70% shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Straight of Hormuz is at a standstill amid the Middle East conflict, which means there is major uncertainty hanging over short-term supply.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to ‘set ablaze’ any Western tanker that attempts to navigate the strait, meaning hundreds of ships laden with oil have amassed outside it.
Writing on Truth Social on Sunday, US President Donald Trump called the increased gas prices ‘a very small price to pay for USA, and World, Safety and Peace’.
‘ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY,’ he asserted.
The president also argued that oil prices ‘will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over.’
Meanwhile, the war rages on, with several explosions heard Monday in the Qatari capital Doha, as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait all reported new attacks.
Doha has been targeted by waves of Iranian drones and missiles since Iran launched a sprawling retaliation campaign across the Gulf in the wake of US and Israeli attacks against the Islamic republic.
Qatar’s defence ministry said on Monday that its forces had intercepted a missile attack.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said the kingdom intercepted and destroyed two waves of drones heading towards the Shaybah oil field in the southeast of the country.
It comes as the US Department of State ordered all non-emergency government employees and their family members to leave Saudi Arabia ‘due to safety risks.’
In the UAE, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority said in a statement on X that air defences responded to ‘a missile threat’.
The UAE foreign ministry released dramatic footage showing Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) being lined up in an anti-missile system’s crosshairs.
A smoke cloud erupts from the site of an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on March 9
A rattle of gunfire can then be heard as the drones are exploded, before the operator reports: ‘Target destroyed, sir.’
Kuwait, which was targeted by seven missiles and five drones on Sunday according to authorities, announced another missile and drone attack on Monday.
The defence ministry said the country’s air defences were working to intercept the attack.
Iraqi air defenses shot down a drone early Monday as it approached Victoria Base, a US-operated military compound inside Baghdad International Airport, a security source told the AP on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
Iran launched a fresh wave of attacks on Israel overnight, with one person killed and at least two seriously injured in the Yehud area, according to Israeli emergency services.
Paramedics were ‘searching a number of scenes and treating two unconscious males in serious condition’, the Magen David Adom emergency service said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon’s capital Beirut continue, as the Israeli military warned on Monday it would strike branches of Al-Qard al-Hassan, a Hezbollah-linked financial firm mainly operating in the group’s strongholds.
Footage on AFPTV’s live broadcast showed large plumes of smoke rising from the area, a stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group.
It comes as human rights campaigners have accused Israel of using white phosphorus in Lebanon, a controversial incendiary munition.
Human Rights Watch said Israel fired white phosphorus using artillery at residential areas in the southern Lebanese village of Yohmor hours after the Israeli military warned the residents of the village and dozens of others in southern Lebanon to evacuate.
Human rights advocates say the use of white phosphorus is illegal under international law when the white-hot chemical substance is fired into populated areas.
It can set buildings on fire and burn human flesh down to the bone. Survivors are at risk of infections and organ or respiratory failure, even if their burns are small.
Israel’s military also said it struck targets in central Iran on Monday, including internal security command centres and missile launch sites, in the first raid since the Islamic republic appointed a new supreme leader.
‘The Israeli Air Force… completed an additional wave of strikes on infrastructure across Iran belonging to the Iranian regime,’ a military statement said.
The targets included ‘a rocket engine production facility and several long-range ballistic missiles launch sites’ that threatened Israel, it said.
The internal security headquarters in the central city of Isfahan, a police headquarters and other facilities used by the Revolutionary Guards and paramilitary Basij force were also hit, according to the military.
Son of Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei
‘The Internal Security and Basij forces… constitute a central arm in the repression of the Iranian civilian population and are responsible for the use of brutal and systematic violence against it,’ the statement said.
It added that the latest strikes were part of ‘deepening the damage to the core arrays and foundations of the Iranian regime’.
This was the first wave of strikes Israel has announced since Tehran named Mojtaba Khamenei as the Islamic republic’s supreme leader late on Sunday.
The 56-year-old is the second eldest son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose death was announced on February 28 after he was killed in joint Israeli-US missile strikes.
Mojtaba had long been considered a contender for the post despite never being elected or appointed to a government position.
As Supreme Leader he will now be the commander-in-chief of the regime’s armed forces and appoint the leaders of all military branches, as well as choosing the head of the judiciary.
He is expected to continue Ali Khamenei’s hardline policies and is a supporter of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon, unlike his father who had issued a fatwa against their acquisition and use.
Mojtaba is a cleric like his father but despite being a rising star in the theoretical establishment, he is not known for public addresses or sermons – meaning his voice is unfamilair to many Iranians.
Mojtaba was born in Mashhad in 1969 and served in the Iran-Iraq war, later becoming one of the wealthiest people in Iran.
He has huge wealth stored in banks in the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Venezuela, and Africa, along with around $300 million in gold and diamonds, and Swiss bank accounts, according to the Arab-language Alquds Alarabi newspaper.
On Wednesday, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to assassinate any Iranian leader picked to succeed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a post on X, Katz said: ‘Any leader selected by the Iranian terror regime to continue leading the plan for Israel’s destruction, threatening the United States, the free world and countries in the region, and suppressing the Iranian people, will be a certain target for assassination, no matter his name or where he hides.’
