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Iranian strikes cause extensive damage at major Qatar gas hub
Doha, March 19 (AFP) Mar 19, 2026
Two waves of Iranian strikes caused "extensive damage" at Qatar's main gas hub, the country's state-run energy firm said on Thursday, with President Donald Trump warning Iran against further attacks on the facility.

Iran had vowed to target energy infrastructure across the Gulf after a strike that Trump said was carried out by Israel on Iranian facilities at South Pars field, Iran's part of the world's largest known gas reserve.

Missile strikes on the Ras Laffan Industrial City on Qatar's north coast on Wednesday caused damage to a gas-to-liquids facility and early on Thursday sparked "sizeable fires and extensive further damage" to several liquified natural gas facilities, QatarEnergy said in a statement.

Qatar's interior ministry said crews brought all fires under control at the Ras Laffan site, without reporting any injuries.

The country's defence ministry said Qatar was attacked by ballistic missiles from Iran, targeting the energy hub.

While the UK maritime agency reported on Thursday that a projectile hit a vessel near Ras Laffan and that all crew were safe.

Qatar is one of the world's top liquefied natural gas producers, alongside the United States, Australia and Russia.

Trump on his Truth Social platform threatened to "massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field" if any further attacks took place at Ras Laffan.

He said Israel was responsible for the strike on South Pars. Israel's government has not commented.

The Gulf has borne the brunt of Iran's reprisals for the US-Israeli strikes that sparked the Middle East war in late February, with Tehran targeting US assets as well as striking energy facilities.

The feared energy shock caused by the war has shaken international markets and pushed up prices globally.

Oil prices surged more than 5 percent on Thursday on supply concerns and stocks sank as news of the attacks on Gulf energy facilities spooked investors.

Qatari authorities said there were no reports of injuries from the Ras Laffan attacks, which caused a vast fire that illuminated the night sky and could be seen from roughly 30 kilometres aware, an AFP journalist reported.

In a statement after the first wave of strikes, Qatar's foreign ministry condemned what it called a "brutal Iranian attack targeting Ras Laffan" saying the targeting represented a "direct threat to its national security".

Later, the ministry said Iran's military and security attaches and their staff had been ordered to leave the country within 24 hours.


- 'Will not stop' -


The latest wave of threats to crucial Gulf energy infrastructure was sparked by the strike on Iranian facilities in the South Pars, an extension of the gas field that it shares with Qatar.

Israeli authorities have not commented since Trump posted on social media that Israel had carried it out the strike, which take place on Wednesday.

Iran warned in response it would destroy Gulf energy infrastructure if further strikes hit its own energy sector, state media reported.

"We warn you once again that you made a big mistake in attacking the energy infrastructure of the Islamic republic," the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by Iranian media.

Iran launched fresh salvos of drones and missiles towards the Gulf states on Wednesday evening with several strong blasts heard in the Saudi capital Riyadh, according to AFP journalists, and a missile threat intercepted in the UAE, according to authorities.

Four people were injured when shrapnel from a ballistic missile interception fell on a residential area of the Saudi capital Riyadh on Wednesday, the civil defence said.

Riyadh's defence ministry said it intercepted four ballistic missiles on Wednesday with a fragment falling near a refinery south of the Saudi capital.

Multiple drones were also intercepted and destroyed as they headed towards Saudi gas facilities in the kingdom's Eastern Province.

Earlier, Qatar had condemned the attacks on Iran's gas facilities calling them "dangerous and irresponsible".

Foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari warned that: "Targeting energy infrastructure constitutes a threat to global energy security, to the peoples of the region, and to its environment."

In a rare rebuke, the UAE also criticised the targeting of the Iranian facilities as a "dangerous escalation".

"Targeting energy infrastructure poses a direct threat to global energy security," Abu Dhabi's foreign ministry said in a statement.

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