Bahrain reported on Sunday morning that an Iranian drone attack caused “material damage” to a desalination plant, marking the first time an Arab country has recorded Iran targeting such a facility during the nine-day conflict.
The plant is among hundreds of desalination facilities along the Persian Gulf coast, on which Arab states heavily rely for drinking water. The attack comes as regional hostilities intensify, with Israel striking southern Lebanon, Beirut, and an oil storage facility in Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a US airstrike had damaged an Iranian desalination plant on Qeshm Island, warning that Washington had set a precedent. He did not directly comment on the Bahrain incident.
Separately, an Israeli attack on an oil storage facility in Tehran sent pillars of fire into the night sky, with smoke blanketing the capital on Sunday morning, according to Associated Press footage. Fars news agency reported that strikes on Saturday hit four oil storage facilities and an oil production transfer centre in Tehran and Alborz, killing four tanker drivers.
The conflict, which began on 28 February after joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran, has killed at least 1,230 people in the Islamic Republic, more than 300 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials. A missile alert also sounded in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Sunday morning.
