{"id":547546,"date":"2026-03-18T03:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/547546\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T03:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:31:10","slug":"australian-facilities-damaged-in-iranian-attack-on-middle-east-air-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/547546\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian facilities damaged in Iranian attack on Middle East air base"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Iran has launched an attack on an air base in the Middle East where Australian soldiers are stationed, starting a fire that damaged Australian medical and accommodation facilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed that an Iranian projectile hit a road just outside the Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates about 9:15am AEDT today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\"><a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-03-18\/iran-war-live-updates-israel-us-donald-trump\/106464502\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106464502\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Iran war live updates:<\/a> For the latest news on the Middle East crisis, read our blog.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It is not clear if it was a missile or drone strike, but Mr Albanese said it started a fire, which caused &#8220;minor damage&#8221; to an accommodation block and medical facility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I can confirm that no Australian personnel were injured, and everyone is absolutely safe at this point in time,&#8221; Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;There was minor damage to an accommodation block and a medical facility due to a small fire that was created as a result of that projectile hitting a road leading up to that base.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">More than 100 Australian military personnel are based at Al Minhad, which also hosts British and a small number of United States personnel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">While the base is owned by the UAE, Australia uses it as its primary military, logistics, surveillance and training hub in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It has been an operational hub for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) since 2003, but the Australian presence was scaled down following the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">ADF personnel travelling in and out of the broader region often arrive and depart from Al Minhad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The ABC has been told that the Wedgetail aircraft deployed to the Middle East last week by the government was not at the base when the projectile landed.<\/p>\n<p>Base struck in early days of conflict<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It is the <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-03-03\/adf-personnel-safe-after-dubai-air-base-strike\/106408590\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106408590\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">second time that the base has been targeted<\/a> during the war, with an Iranian drone strike hitting the facility in the first few days of the conflict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">That strike caused no damage to Australian facilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">In response to a question on whether the Al Minhad Air Base was being targeted by Iran, Mr Albanese said: &#8220;The Iranian regime is engaging in random attacks right across the region. We know that is the case.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The UAE has been a target for heavy bombardment from Iran throughout the conflict, with the country&#8217;s defence ministry estimating nearly 1,700 drones and missiles targeted the country in the first week of the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It is estimated 90 per cent were intercepted before reaching their target.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Al Minhad is one of a number of Western military bases within the UAE.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The US shares the Al Dhafra Air Base with the UAE, located south of Abu Dhabi, which defence experts say is a critical facility for American forces in the region.<\/p>\n<p>Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran has launched an attack on an air base in the Middle East where Australian soldiers are stationed,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,5575,12241,44,29994],"class_list":["post-547546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547546","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=547546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}