Iranian drone struck a high-rise building in Dubai’s financial district early Friday, damaging part of an office tower and raising concerns that the widening conflict in the Gulf is beginning to threaten the region’s economic centers.
Dubai authorities said the façade of the Innovation One building in the Dubai International Financial Centre was damaged when fragments from a drone shot down by air-defense systems hit the structure about 100 feet above ground level. Officials said no injuries were reported.
The explosion occurred shortly after 7 a.m. local time, when residents in the area reported hearing loud blasts and seeing a plume of black smoke rising above the city’s main financial hub.
Read related news :
Emirates resumes Dubai–Lagos flights amid Middle East tensions
Iran warns US over World Cup security
Nigerian socialite allegedly posed as Dubai crown prince to scam Romanian woman $2.5m
The strike followed warnings from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps earlier this week that it would target “economic centres and banks” in the Gulf that it believes are connected to American and Israeli interests.
The threat has prompted growing concern among multinational companies operating in Dubai, a major financial and commercial hub for the Middle East. According to people familiar with the situation, several international firms had already begun evacuating employees from offices in the district.
Companies including Citigroup and the consulting firms Deloitte and PwC had closed offices and instructed staff to leave the area by the time the drone debris struck on Friday, according to people briefed on the evacuations.
“I jumped out of bed, that was the loudest sound I’ve ever heard,” said one resident who lives near the financial district. “The ground shook.”
Officials in the United Arab Emirates said their air-defense systems have intercepted more than 1,500 Iranian drones and nearly 300 missiles since fighting between Iran, the United States and Israel escalated on Feb. 28.
Several sites across Dubai have been targeted in recent weeks, including Dubai International Airport, ports and landmarks such as Palm Jumeirah and the Burj Al Arab.
The strike in Dubai came hours after Iranian missiles hit northern Israel, damaging homes in the village of Zarzir near Nazareth and injuring dozens of civilians, according to Israeli emergency officials.
Israel’s national emergency service, Magen David Adom, said more than 50 people received medical treatment following the attack.
The escalating strikes have heightened fears that the conflict could increasingly disrupt global trade and energy supplies.
Western officials have warned that Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes — have already unsettled shipping and energy markets.
Analysts say attacks on economic centers such as Dubai could signal a broader strategy by Iran to exert pressure on the Gulf’s financial infrastructure as the conflict intensifies.
