Iran hit an empty quarter of a US military base in Bahrain, Bahraini political analyst Dr. Ahmed Alkhuzaie told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday after Reuters reported smoke billowing from the Juffair area housing on the US Naval base.<\/p>\n
The state news agency later reported that Bahrain has successfully ‘dealt with’ missiles in its airspace.<\/p>\n
Alkhuzaie, a managing partner at the international consultancy Khuzaie Associates LLC, spoke with the Post while sheltering in the Gulf.<\/p>\n
A source living in Manama, Bahrain, confirmed to the Post earlier that blasts were heard in the area.<\/p>\n
The US Embassy in Bahrain urged citizens to shelter in place while citing media reports of threats of missiles and drones over Bahraini airspace.<\/p>\n
The Bahraini Interior Ministry later confirmed that a warning alarm siren had been activated, with citizens and residents requested to head to the nearest safe place.<\/p>\n
Bahrain hosts the US Central Command’s 5th Fleet.<\/p>\n
Additionally, US Embassy in Qatar implemented shelter-in-place for all personnel, recommending that all of its citizens to do the same until further notice.<\/p>\n
Later on Saturday, loud blasts were also heard in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, witnesses said.<\/p>\n
Alkhuzaie told the Post he thought Iran had measured its response, only hitting an empty area of a base in a similar fashion to what it did during the 12-day war in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s a proportionate retaliation,\u201d he said, noting that Israeli and US airstrikes targeted regime facilities across Iran on Saturday.<\/p>\n
While Tehran\u2019s response is measured, Alkhuzaie warned that it was likely Iranian proxy groups in Yemen and Lebanon would escalate with attacks against Israel and US assets in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a formula,\u201d he said. \u201cWhenever Iran is under pressure, the proxies become more active.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a developing story.<\/p>\n
James Genn contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran hit an empty quarter of a US military base in Bahrain, Bahraini political analyst Dr. Ahmed Alkhuzaie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[944,936,43,5575,44,255593,255594,41,39,42,40,21542,29994],"class_list":["post-509599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-bahrain","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-news","tag-operation-epic-fury","tag-operation-roaring-lion","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uae","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}