Middle East conflict: Bahrain says Iranian missile strikes state-run oil refinery

An Iranian missile strike ignited a fire at Bahrain's state-operated oil refinery on Thursday, which was subsequently extinguished, the Gulf nation’s communications department reported.

The facility, managed by Bahrain's national petroleum firm Bapco, is situated on the island of Sitra along Bahrain's eastern shoreline, south of the capital, Manama.

"A fire broke out at a unit of the Bapco Energies refinery following an Iranian missile strike. The fire has been fully contained," Bahrain's National Communication Centre, the government's media arm, said in a statement.

"There are no reported injuries, and refinery operations continue. An assessment of the damage is currently under way," the centre added.

Tehran has intensified hostilities throughout the Gulf in retaliation for American and Israeli operations that killed its supreme leader last weekend. These strikes have targeted United States installations as well as civilian assets, including vital hydrocarbon infrastructure in energy-rich territories.

Regarding the same incident, Bahrain's interior ministry previously noted that a facility in the vicinity was hit, while AFP reported plumes of smoke emanating from the site.

Emergency sirens wailed across Bahrain on Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, the country's Defense Ministry announced its military had intercepted 75 Iranian ballistic missiles and 124 unmanned aerial vehicles since the war commenced on Saturday.

Azerbaijan accuses Iran of conducting drone strikes

The conflict has intensified daily, now impacting an additional 14 nations across the Middle East and surrounding regions.

On Thursday, Azerbaijan charged Iran with conducting drone strikes—an allegation Tehran dismissed. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev labeled the incident “a groundless act of terror and aggression” after a drone went down Thursday near Nakhchivan airport, a territory bordering Iran.

A day prior, the U.S. said it had sunk an Iranian warship in waters near Sri Lanka.

Israel, meanwhile, broadcasted a mass evacuation alert for all southern districts of Beirut as combat escalated with Lebanon’s Iran-aligned Hezbollah forces. U.N. observers noted ground engagements in southern Lebanon as more Israeli battalions crossed the frontier. Simultaneously, the U.S. and Israel have pounded Iran with nationwide aerial strikes, focusing on military assets, leadership structures, and nuclear facilities. Israeli and American officials have also implied that deposing the government was a primary objective—and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed when they initiated the offensive Saturday. However, specific goals and schedules have shifted frequently, and the struggle increasingly appeared to be an open-ended engagement.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Axios on Thursday that he intends to be involved in selecting Iran’s subsequent supreme leader, asserting that Mojtaba Khamenei, a leading candidate to replace his father, would be an “unacceptable” participant. The White House indicated that the military campaign would persist until "all objectives" regarding regional security and the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program are fully achieved.