Bahrain tells residents to stay inside after an attack on fuel tanks, while Saudi Arabia reports it shot down drones heading towards an oil field.
Posted on March 12, 2026
Iran launched a new wave of drone and missile attacks against Gulf countries on the 13th day of the US-Israel war against Tehran, and Bahrain reported attacks on fuel tanks amid rising oil prices.
Bahrain told residents on Thursday morning to stay indoors and close their windows after the attack in Muharraq governorate. The country is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and has been constantly attacked amid the ongoing war.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Separately, Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted drones heading toward the Shaybah oil field and the embassy district. It said it had intercepted seven drones heading to the oil field on Wednesday.
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia’s eastern neighbor, also reported attacks on its territory and said two people were injured by a “hostile drone” that hit a residential building. The attack also caused material damage, the Defense Ministry added.
The United Arab Emirates said its air defense was responding to a missile threat.
Meanwhile, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency says there was an attack on a container ship about 35 nautical miles (about 65 kilometers) north of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates.
In Jordan, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic say sirens have been sounding in every city in the country.
The US-Israel war against Iran has so far killed about 2,000 people and thrown global energy and transportation markets into chaos.
Brent crude oil prices were around $100 a barrel at 2:00 GMT on Thursday, an increase of more than 38 percent compared to before the start of the war.
The conflict has spread across the Middle East and spurred plans for a record release of strategic oil reserves to cushion one of the worst fuel crises since the 1970s.
Iraq suspends oil port operations
The head of Iraq’s General Ports Company, Farhan al-Fartousi, told the Iraqi News Agency that all oil terminal operations have been completely suspended, while commercial ports continue to operate normally.
The announcement comes after attacks by ships loaded with explosives against two oil tankers that had loaded in the port of Umm Qasr in the Iraqi province of Basra.
Rescuers recovered one body and helped 38 others after the attack, al-Fartousi added.
The development comes as traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carries a fifth of the world’s oil and gas, has ground to a halt, and Iran has vowed that “not even a single liter of oil” will be exported from the Gulf to the United States, Israel and its partners as long as the war against Tehran continues.
