Iran unleashes huge overnight attack on Gulf states with Bahrain seeing highest number of casualties since war began as refinery is hit and oil prices surge

Iran has unleashed a huge attack overnight on countries in the Gulf, with Bahrain experiencing the highest number of casualties since the beginning of the war.

32 people were injured in an Iranian attack on Bahrain’s island of Sitra, the interior ministry said, after Bahrain’s Bapco refinery was hit by drones overnight.

All of the wounded were Bahraini citizens and there were four ‘serious cases’, including children, the health ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency.

The wounded included a 17-year-old girl who suffered severe head and eye injuries, and a two-month-old baby, according to the ministry.

‘As a result of the blatant Iranian aggression, injuries among citizens were reported, one of them serious, and a number of houses in Sitra were damaged as a result of an attack by drones,’ the ministry said.

Bapco confirmed the strike on its 405,000-barrel-per-day refinery, however said 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.

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.

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 is raging 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 the dramatic footage showing Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) being lined up in an anti-missile system’s crosshairs. 

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.

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.

‘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.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow.