The extraordinary breadth of the Middle East war was underlined on Friday when Qatar became the latest nation to scramble its air defences against Iranian missiles, issuing evacuation orders for parts of the capital Doha before explosions were heard and a missile was confirmed intercepted. President Donald Trump, calling Iranian leaders “deranged scumbags” and declaring the campaign a historic duty, appeared unmoved by the expanding geographic scope of the conflict. He promised that US strikes would intensify and announced that Kharg Island’s military infrastructure had been completely obliterated.
Qatar has until recently avoided being drawn directly into the conflict, maintaining a complex position as host to major US military facilities while also maintaining diplomatic channels with Iran. Friday’s missile strike changed that calculation abruptly, with the interior ministry issuing evacuation orders for parts of Doha before the defence ministry confirmed a successful interception. Qatar’s experience was part of a broader pattern of Iranian strikes on Gulf states on Friday that also saw Saudi Arabia intercept close to 50 drones, Oman record two deaths from drone crashes, and Dubai’s financial district sustain building damage.
US and Israeli forces continued their intensive campaign against Iran. Combined strikes have exceeded 15,000 targets since the war began. Israel alone reported over 200 individual strikes in the most recent 24 hours. Trump’s late announcement about Kharg Island described US Central Command destroying every military installation on Iran’s primary oil export hub in one of the most powerful raids in Middle Eastern history. He warned that oil infrastructure would be struck next if Iran continued to blockade the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has reported over 1,300 deaths.
Lebanon continued to bear a heavy share of the conflict’s toll, with over 600 killed and 800,000 displaced. Eight more died in an Israeli strike on Sidon Friday. Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, injuring about 60. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched new coordinated strikes on Israel with Hezbollah as part of al-Quds Day. Israel’s defence minister warned Lebanon of escalating costs for Hezbollah’s use of its infrastructure. Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei was described by US officials as wounded, disfigured, and in hiding underground.
Tehran residents described a city of continuous bombardment, power cuts, fuel shortages, and desperate civilians unable to flee. A retired professor begged for international intervention. A shopkeeper counted six explosions in one hour. The United States has lost 13 service members, including six in a tanker aircraft crash in Iraq. France lost a soldier to a pro-Iranian militia drone in Iraq. European governments sought diplomatic channels with Tehran for Strait of Hormuz shipping safety, hoping to find some way to protect their commercial interests from a conflict that appeared to be expanding into every corner of the region.