DUBAI: Smoke was rising from the direction of a major UAE energy installation on Saturday (March 14), in what appeared to be the latest strike targeting the Gulf's petroleum facilities - hours after the US struck Iran's Kharg Island oil hub.
Clouds of dark black smoke were seen coming from Fujairah, which is home to a major port where Iranian attacks have already targeted an oil storage and trading hub. The port is also home to a key oil export terminal.
Local authorities, in an online statement, said debris falling after a successful drone interception had caused a fire, without specifying the location.
The incident comes hours after President Donald Trump said the US military had bombed targets on Iran's Kharg Island - which handles almost all of Iran's crude exports - and threatened to hit the island's oil infrastructure.
Drone strikes hit the UAE's Fujairah energy installations earlier this month, with falling debris from an intercepted drone sparking a blaze, authorities said.
Since the beginning of the war, Iran has methodically targeted the Gulf's energy sites from Kuwait to Oman.
The strikes have mostly hit oil and gas fields or sprawling complexes, such as the massive Ras Tanura refinery in Saudi Arabia, Ras Laffan gas processing base in Qatar and the complex housing the UAE's Ruwais refinery.
Iran has also effectively halted traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane through which about a fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas normally pass.
The UAE has been targeted repeatedly with missile barrages and drone strikes, as Tehran unleashed retaliatory strikes across the Gulf after the US and Israel launched a war against Iran.
The UAE foreign affairs ministry has since slammed the targeting of its consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan for the second time in a week.
Earlier on Saturday, Iran's military warned that it considered ports in the United Arab Emirates to be legitimate targets and urged residents to avoid them, in a statement carried by state TV.
Tehran "considers it its legitimate right to defend its national sovereignty and territory by striking American enemy missiles located in ports, docks and US military hideouts" in the UAE, the military's central operational command, Khatam Al-Anbiya, said.
The statement urged civilians to "evacuate" port areas. - AFP
