A fire has broken out near the entrance of a world famous Dubai hotel during an Iranian air attack, social media footage shows, as the Tehran regime retaliates to a series of US and Israeli attacks.
Footage verified by The Independent shows the moment a projectile struck outside the Fairmont The Palm hotel in Dubai’s prestige Palm Jumeirah area.
The government of Dubai’s Media Office has said an “incident occurred in a building in the Palm Jumeirah area” and four people were injured. When The Independent tried to contact the hotel, there was no answer.
Explosions have been heard in Bahrain, the UAE, Jordan and Qatar after the Iranian regime warned it would retaliate to any strikes by the US and Israel – which were launched last night.
Iranian state media has reported dozens of deaths across the country following the US-Israeli strikes, which came after months of threats from US president Donald Trump.
This includes at least 53 people who were reportedly killed at a girls’ school. Tehran authorities said 15 people were killed in a sports hall in the Fars province.
One person has been killed as a result of falling debris in Abu Dhabi, while sirens are sounding across Israel with citizens warned to take shelter.
Iran considers all US and Israeli bases, facilities, and assets in the region to be “legitimate military objectives,” Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi told the UN Security Council and secretary-general Antonio Guterres in a letter on Saturday.
“Iran will continue to exercise its right of self-defense decisively and without hesitation until the aggression ceases fully and unequivocally,” he wrote in the letter seen by Reuters.
Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu launched co-ordinated strikes across Iran in what they described as a “preventative attack”.
President Donald Trump confirmed a “major combat operation” in an eight-minute speech, stating Iran could never have a nuclear weapon and adding: “It’s been mass terror, and we’re not going to take it any longer.”
Witnesses said they heard the blasts in the Iranian capital, while footage appears to show columns of smoke rising above the city.
Iran and Israel have closed their airspace, while officials in Tehran said their supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been transferred to a secure location.
Airlines on Saturday cancelled about half of their flights to Qatar and Israel and about 28 per cent of their flights to Kuwait, according to preliminary data from the provider Cirium. In total, about 24 per cent of flights to the Middle East were cancelled.
