Abu Dhabi gas complex shut after intercepted attack sparks fire

A gas complex in the United Arab Emirates was shut down Friday after a fire broke out following an intercepted attack, authorities said. The government media office in Abu Dhabi said falling debris from a successfully intercepted strike caused a fire at the Habshan gas facilities in the desert emirate. “Abu Dhabi authorities are responding to an incident of falling debris at the Habshan gas facilities, following successful interception by air defence systems. Operations have been suspended while authorities respond to a fire. No injuries have been reported,” the media office said in a post on X. The Habshan complex is a key gas processing site in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, a major oil and gas producer in the Middle East. Separately, Kuwait said one of its power generation and water desalination plants was damaged in what it described as an Iranian attack. “One of the power generation and water desalination stations was subjected to an attack this dawn by the sinful Iranian aggression, resulting in material damage,” a spokesperson for Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water said, according to the state-run Kuwait News Agency. The ministry did not specify the extent of the damage. An AFP correspondent in Kuwait City reported no disruption to electricity or water services in the capital following the incident. Earlier, Iran said it had launched a new wave of attacks targeting the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel. The strikes were carried out after what Tehran described as U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran’s two largest steel plants. “In response to attacks on Iranian steel industries, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a new wave of attacks this morning,” Iran’s Khatam Al-Anbiya central command said in a statement carried by state television. It said the targets included “American steel industries in Abu Dhabi, American aluminium industries in Bahrain, and the Rafael arms factories of the Zionist regime.” Rafael is an Israeli defense company. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, quoting the Revolutionary Guards’ navy command, said data centers of two U.S. companies were also targeted. It identified them as Oracle in Dubai and Amazon in Bahrain.