Blasts heard in Bahrain despite US, Iran ceasefire

MANAMA: Explosions were heard in Bahrain’s capital Manama on Wednesday morning, according to an AFP journalist, hours after the United States announced a ceasefire with Iran.

The Gulf kingdom’s interior ministry said civil defence crews had succeeded in controlling a fire that broke out in a facility “targeted by the Iranian aggression”, with no injuries reported.

An AFP reporter saw smoke rising from an area on Sitra island, close to Manama, that hosts Bahrain’s principal energy facilities.

Earlier both Tehran and Washington said they had agreed to a two-week ceasefire barely an hour before President Donald Trump’s deadline to obliterate Iran was set to expire.

Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, Qatar’s defence ministry also announced it was dealing with a missile threat.

PM Shehbaz hails ceasefire, invites US and Iran for ‘Islamabad Talks’

Before the ceasefire was publicised, Doha’s interior ministry said falling debris from an earlier intercepted missile salvo had injured four people including one child.

Gulf countries have faced repeated drone and missile barrages from Iran over recent weeks in response to the US and Israeli strikes that began at the end of February.

Iran targeted fossil fuel infrastructure in the oil-rich Gulf nations while effectively closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz to shipping, through which one-fifth of global oil usually passes.