WASHINGTON, United States — The United States on Thursday announced the approval of $16.46 billion in military sales to the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, two Gulf states that have been hit hard by fallout from the Iran war.

 

Iran responded to the massive US-Israeli air campaign launched late last month with barrages of missiles and drones that have caused deaths and damage in various Gulf countries, which have been forced to expended significant military resources to counter attacks.

 

Emirati and Kuwaiti air defences were responding to missile fire early Friday, authorities in the Gulf states said, while Saudi Arabia intercepted drone attacks.

 

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Bahrain's interior ministry said that shrapnel from an "Iranian aggression" caused a fire at a warehouse, which was brought under control and resulted in no injuries.

 

The ministry earlier said air raid sirens were activated.

 

In Kuwait, an army statement said air defences were "responding to hostile missile and drone threats", while the UAE state media reported "incoming missile and drone threats from Iran".

 

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency that they had targeted US forces in the UAE's Al-Dhafra air base as well as sites in Israel with missiles and drones.

 

Saudi Arabia's defence ministry said that within less than two hours, its forces had "intercepted and destroyed" 10 drones in the country's east and another in the north.

 

On Thursday, drones struck a Saudi oil refinery on the Red Sea and caused fires at two others in Kuwait, as Iran stepped up attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure.

 

Those attacks followed major damage at the world's biggest gas hub, Qatar's Ras Laffan, on Wednesday as Iran retaliated for Israeli strikes on its South Pars gas field.

 

A projectile hit a tanker off the coast of the east coast of the United Arab Emirates, causing a fire and leaving the captain missing, officials and maritime monitors said Thursday.

 

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a naval monitor, said it received a report at 2300 GMT on Wednesday that "a vessel has been hit by an unknown projectile which has resulted in a fire on board" off the UAE port of Khor Fakkan in the Gulf of Oman.

 

At a meeting of the International Maritime Organisation in London later on Thursday, the delegate from Palau identified the vessel as a chemical tanker flagged to that country, the Parimal.

 

He said 15 crew members were rescued by a Cook Islands-flagged tanker.

 

“However, the master is missing," he added.

 

Marine intelligence journal Lloyd's List said the Parimal was part of the "shadow fleet" of unregulated vessels under international sanctions.

 

Iranian forces have blocked the nearby Strait of Hormuz, a crucial trade route for oil and gas as part of the Middle East war.