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A ballistic missile that evaded Qatar’s defences caused a huge explosion at a gas refinery as Iran launches ‘full scale economic war’ across the Middle East.
People filmed huge explosions erupting in Ras Laffan Industrial City – the world’s biggest natural gas plant – in Qatar.
On X, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and said it marked a dangerous escalation.
The state-owned oil and gas company, QatarEnergy, said the fire had caused ‘extensive’ damage.
Iran launched five ballistic missiles toward Qatar, the defence ministry said, and the country’s military intercepted all of them except the one that fell at Ras Laffan.
Qatar warned they would not hesitate to respond to attacks on its security and sovereignty.
Iranian missiles cause ‘extensive damage’ to world’s biggest natural gas plant in Qatar
Other strikes rocked Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh. The Saudi Civil Defense agency said the four were hurt when shrapnel fell on a residential area in Riyadh near an oil refinery, causing limited damage. It said they were not Saudi citizens but did not provide their nationalities.
It came after Iran issued an evacuation warning for several oil facilities across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed revenge for the family of his head of intelligence, Ali Larijani, who was killed in an Israeli strike.
‘Undoubtedly, the assassination of such a person shows the extent of his importance and the hatred of the enemies of Islam towards him,’ Khamenei said in a written statement, while also vowing revenge.
‘All blood has its price that the criminal murderers of the martyrs must pay soon,’ the statement said.
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The Ministry of Defence said there were no UK casualties and no damage to UK assets at Al Minhad Air Base, which hosts a permanent RAF facility after it was struck.
No close ally has come forward with immediate help for Donald Trump to win the war and open the Strait of Hormuz. Britain is flat-out refusing to be drawn into the war. France says the fighting would have to die down first. Others are non-committal.
China, which is not an ally but was also asked to help, is ignoring Trump’s call.
‘This is not Europe’s war. We didn’t start the war. We were not consulted,’ European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Tuesday.
Still, Trump is feeling the harshest sting from the United Kingdom’s steadfast refusal to join.
The ‘special relationship’ may not be so special (Credits: via REUTERS)
Prime Minister Keir Starmer cultivated ties with Trump and reached an early trade deal with the administration, but is now among allies who refuse to join a regional war with no clear endgame.
The UK ‘was sort of considered the Rolls-Royce of allies,’ Trump said, adding that he’d asked for British minesweeping ships.
‘I was not happy with the UK,’ Trump said. ‘They should be involved enthusiastically. We’ve been protecting these countries for years.’
Starmer said Britain ‘will not be drawn into the wider war’ and that British troops require the backing of international law and ‘a proper thought-through plan’ — suggesting those were not in place.
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