Dubai, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have all raised the alarm about Iranian drone attacks on Wednesday.
A US diplomatic compound in the Iraqi capital Baghdad has also been hit by drones, according to The Washington Post. Militia groups with links to the Iranian regime are suspected of being behind the attack.
The strikes are part of what Iran has called the “most intense” wave of attacks since the start of the war. Iran says it is targeting US and Israeli targets, but it has also attacked oil fields and refineries. It is part of its strategy to cause widespread economic problems on a global scale - to pressure the US and Israel to stop the attacks.
In addition, three ships in the Strait of Hormuz were hit in separate incidents on Wednesday, with a total of three people missing by Wednesday afternoon.
Threats to ports
After the attacks on the ships, the US has warned that it now considers civilian ports in and around the strait to be legitimate targets.
"The Iranian regime is using civilian ports along the Strait of Hormuz for military operations that threaten international shipping," the US military wrote in a statement, threatening to strike the ports.
That warning prompted Iran, in turn, to warn of targeted attacks on regional ports if the ports were attacked.
"All ports and additional locations in the region are then legitimate targets," a statement on state television said, according to AFP.
On Wednesday morning, Iran's military announced that banks and financial institutions in the Middle East are now also targets.
Trump: Nothing left to attack
Concerns about a global energy crisis have increased significantly after Iran's retaliatory attacks on energy facilities, with a fifth of the world's oil and gas exports passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
At the same time, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that the war against Iran, together with the US, will continue "as long as necessary."
And in the US, President Donald Trump told the news site Axios that the war will "soon" end and that "there is practically nothing left to attack" in Iran.
"There's a little here and a little there. I can end (the war) whenever I want," he said.
