Thick smoke billows from UAE energy facilities

Thick black smoke billowed from Fujairah, home to a major port and an oil storage and trading hub that Iranian attacks have targeted. The port is also home to an important oil export terminal.

Local authorities said in a statement that debris falling after successfully intercepting the drone sparked the fire, but did not specify the location.

The incident came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. military had bombed targets on Iran’s Khargah island, which is responsible for nearly all of Iran’s crude exports, and threatened to attack the island’s oil infrastructure.

Later in the evening, authorities said they were still extinguishing the blaze, adding that a Jordanian national was injured.

Authorities said drones struck energy facilities in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, earlier this month, and debris dropped from an intercepted drone sparked a fire.

Since the war began, Iran has methodically targeted energy bases in the Gulf from Kuwait to Oman.

The strikes have mainly targeted oil and gas fields or large complexes, such as the complex that houses Saudi Arabia’s massive Ras Tanura refinery, Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas processing complex and the UAE’s Ruwais refinery.

Iran has also effectively blocked traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas normally pass.

After the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran, Tehran launched retaliatory attacks in the Gulf and the UAE has been the target of multiple missile strikes and drone strikes.

Late on Saturday, the UAE’s foreign ministry condemned for the second time in a week an attack on its consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan.

bur-ds/bou/amj

This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.