When Samsung launched the original Galaxy Fold in 2019, the category did not exist, and the reception was sceptical. Seven generations on, the question is no longer whether foldables work, but how many different kinds a single lineup should contain.

Samsung’s answer this year is three. The Galaxy Z Fold8 is built around a new, wider form factor aimed at media consumption, a 10:16 cover screen when folded, opening to a 4:3 main display, and at 201g the lightest Z Fold the company has made. The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra keeps the taller shape and the flagship camera system, with an 8-inch main display, a 200MP main camera and a body that measures just 4.1mm unfolded. The Galaxy Z Flip8 is the slimmest and lightest Flip yet at 180g and 6.1mm. Alongside them come two wearables, the Galaxy Watch9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra2.

UAE pricing starts at Dhs4,699 for the Flip8 and runs to Dhs10,399 for the 1TB Fold8 Ultra. Pre-orders opened on July 22 and will run until August 6.

Ahead of the launch, Gulf Business sat down with Fadi Abu Shamat, VP and Head of the Mobile eXperience Division at Samsung Gulf Electronics, to discuss the thinking behind the split and the considerably harder commercial environment it lands in.

So many of the functions in this device are things I hadn’t even thought about. How much user input went into developing them?

It’s one thing to push a technology on a consumer without them asking for it, or a technology that doesn’t solve a single problem. Maybe some companies were successful in doing that, but for the most part, the most successful innovations, products, or ideas come from the voice of the consumer.

The way we see things is that the era of a universal foldable phone is over, there can’t be one device that fits all the use cases. The flip came from the consumer. It caters to a specific need. Either you want a pocketable phone that fits literally in the front of your hands, or you need something that gives you that glanceability option.

At the same time, we listened to consumers who said, “We love the foldables, but we really need a video consumption, a media consumption device.” That’s where the Fold8 comes in, with a new form factor tailored to that feedback. And of course, we have the Ultra, which, as the name implies, is the Ultra performance, the Ultra productivity, the Ultra camera system.

All of this came from feedback. It didn’t start from the R&D, it didn’t start from the engineering department. It started from listening to the consumers.

Including the aspect ratio?

Absolutely. We talk every year, and I hear this — “Fadi, we love your foldable devices, it’s just that the aspect ratio is not for me. The aspect ratio is limiting my ability to text easily on the cover page”.

All this feedback goes back. Every meeting, I tell you, please do share the feedback. I personally put it in a document and share it back to headquarters myself, and I imagine all my other colleagues globally do the same. It really helps us to shape the coming iterations.

These phones keep getting thinner, but they also need to be more durable; increasingly, they’re business and creator tools, not lifestyle devices. What’s gone into that?

We started the foldable category, and this is now the eighth generation. With every generation, our goal has been to make foldables more mainstream. For that to happen, they cannot be devices that feel fragile or need to be used only under perfect conditions.

We are introducing improvements to the outer glass protection, along with innovations to the inner foldable display. This year, we are introducing Flex Titanium, a new display structure designed to improve durability while supporting the inner screen. It helps reduce crease visibility and creates a smoother, more refined folding experience.

Flex Titanium combines a titanium-alloy film with an enhanced titanium plate. The structure is designed to strengthen display support, help absorb pressure and impact, and improve long-term crease performance by balancing display tension, hinge mechanics and magnetic force.

What’s the fold test rating this generation?

I think we’re way past how many times it can fold and unfold. At the end of the day, we’re promising the end user seven years of security updates and Android updates. That is not an easy thing, we’re talking about an industry that goes on average two to four years. So, the hardware itself needs to be durable, safe, and function for seven years.

There’s no S Pen support. Why?

At the end of the day, there are still loads of physics and engineering and science, and it boils down to a certain choice. I don’t want to say compromise, but eventually it’s a choice.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that there’s absolutely no use case for the S Pen. That’s not the case. But it boils down to either a slightly thicker, slightly heavier device with an S Pen-enabled feature, or a more streamlined, lighter, bigger battery, more portable and convenient device without the S Pen.
Based on usage habits and consumer feedback, we currently see that portability, lightweight design, and durability outweigh the need for the S Pen. Every generation, we introduce new features. So, who knows?

You now have three form factors to optimise software for, plus a seven-year update commitment. How hard is that?

When we say seven years of software, Android and security updates, that means we need to hold the two pillars at once. So, we expanded our software R&D. There are dedicated teams for each family of devices.

In the last two years, I think we have outdone Google themselves. Google pushes the beta version on their phones, but the official, publicly stable version, for example, Android 17, will be the first device to introduce it to the market.

Every SKU caters for a different use case. The way we see it, the Fold8 Ultra is a pocketable, portable production house. You’ll be able to enjoy the 200-megapixel camera fully. You’ll be able to shoot 8K video through the new APV codec, and then edit it on the eight-inch inner screen. You’ll have your video editing software open, your audio editing tool at the same time, and a second script written on the side. Is this going to be the everyday case? Not really. But the possibility is now there.

And heat management, at that thinness?

When I first saw the device in the testing labs, I was blown away. I said, how? A device that thin, with a 5,000mAh battery and 45-watt charging, and heat management is still there at heart. It’s an expanded cooling structure, improved software management that will manage the efficiency of the electricity and how the device consumes power, and at the same time stay cool in our GCC hot environment.

Software is literally the heart. I know a lot of people think the hardware is the heart of the machine. It’s the software.

The Fold8 Ultra pairs a 5,000mAh dual battery with a new dual-path charging architecture and 45W fast charging, and uses an expanded graphite cooling structure for improved thermal conductivity. Both Fold models run the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform for Galaxy; the Flip8 uses Samsung’s own Exynos 2600.

Is the AI tailored per device, or is it the same layer across all three?

The ethos we started with on the Galaxy S24, when we moved from a smartphone to an AI phone, was that it’s not a competition between the user and the AI, who’s smarter, who’s harder at work. It’s totally the other way around. AI is at the service of the user. And to genuinely cater to that, AI needs to fit every use case.

The Flip8 is a phone that was designed by heart for AI. You have AI on the outside screen — you can dictate your memos, have the AI summarise and share them immediately from the cover screen. On the Ultra, you have AI summarising, translating, and publishing to your favourite publishing app.

On the Fold8, the new form factor will allow you to brilliantly browse the web: on one side, you’re watching a YouTube video, and on the other, you have multiple LLMs working to summarise it, to make it into an infographic, whatever your use case is.

And agentic AI?

The next iteration of AI will be agentic AI. All of our Z Fold8 families are equipped with an agentic engine under the hood, supporting a large number of apps immediately out of the box. If I’m going to a restaurant, I’ll be able to talk naturally to the device and ask about the restaurant, ask about availability, book the table for me and my guests, and in the very same prompt ask it to give me the map directions or the easiest route to avoid traffic. All of this will be natively done on the phone, and the phone will be able to talk to the apps, the taxi, the maps, and so on. This is the generation we’re aiming to streamline and make mainstream.

Samsung’s launch materials attribute app automation to Gemini Intelligence, working across more than 40 supported apps and services. At launch, the automation feature is available only in the US and South Korea, supporting English and Korean, with Samsung saying supported languages and regions will expand during the year.

Chinese manufacturers are moving fast in this category, and they compete hard on price. What’s the strategy?

At the risk of sounding smug, I am genuinely happy because of all the attention the category is getting. In 2019, when we introduced the first Fold, everyone thought, ‘Who’s going to buy a phone that folds into a tablet?’ Look at us now. I’m being asked a question from a professional journalist about the competition in the category. Seven years ago, people thought we were crazy for venturing there. So, I’m really proud that I was a small part of this journey.

The category is now attractive enough and wide enough to attract all competition, from China and elsewhere. Rather than being worried about it, we created this category, and we’re very proud of it. Competition breeds creativity. Even if you’re the best of the best, if you don’t have competition, if it works, don’t mess with it, right? Competition breeds more genuine effort towards making the product better.

And the three-device strategy is part of that answer?

If we benchmark it simply with the bar type: why is there a bar type with a six-inch screen, and another with a seven-inch screen? Why is one equipped with three or four cameras and another with a single camera? Because even with bar types, there are choices, there are preferences. That ethos is now what we’re seeing in the foldable category. A single offering from other companies is not going to be enough. We cannot expect consumers to change their life habits to fit our product. That’s just a bit egotistical. And it’s a huge undertaking.

Every product requires a software team, a hardware team, and spare parts. All companies are inclined to streamline, to minimise the number of SKUs, to minimise spare parts; the marketing team would appreciate one campaign, one device, just focus on it. The fact that we’re putting ourselves out there with three devices means three customer support teams, three software support teams, three marketing campaigns. I hope the consumer will appreciate that commitment.

What market share are you targeting?

As creators of the category, we tend to enjoy a higher share; as we speak, we enjoy more than 60 per cent.

But the way we see it, we want this device to compete not only in the foldable category, but we also want it to compete in the entire market. We’re that confident that the eighth generation is strong enough to pull from the bar type. I would be more than happy if I found a Galaxy S26 user and brought him to the Fold8.

So now is the time when the foldable category is not only benchmarked within that one segment. We want the Fold8 series to really be part of the overall competition, and we’re confident that soon enough it will constitute more than 50 per cent of our entire flagship business. Soon enough, I think the S and Z families will probably blend into one flagship lineup.

What’s your message to someone fully invested in a competing ecosystem who’s considering the switch?

For the first time, Samsung Smart Switch, which is our own proprietary solution, will give you that peace of mind. Whichever other operating system, any other brand you’re coming from, Smart Switch will be able to absorb all your personal data, including passwords, private applications, the eSIM subscription you have on a previous device or a wearable device. It will migrate them all with ease, cable or wireless.

The test I saw was approximately 180 gigabytes of private data moved in less than two hours. It’s that massive.

Beyond that, Samsung has that vertical and horizontal product line. You’ll be able to enjoy Samsung Smart Home, Samsung TVs, phones and wearables together, and Samsung Health. The message is: whatever features you had before, you’re going to have them and more.

iOS users can now scan a QR code to transfer wirelessly without downloading an app, with Smart Switch carrying over passwords and passkeys, call history, accessibility settings and eSIM data. Quick Share also now works with AirDrop, making file sharing between iOS and Galaxy devices possible in both directions.

Let’s talk about the wearables. What’s new?

This launch is doubly special for us, because we’re not only introducing three new foldable devices, we’ve introduced two new wearables: the Watch9 and the Watch Ultra2.

The Watch Ultra2 boasts a 5,000-nit screen. In a GCC setting, when you’re out there doing whatever sport or activity, the screen will be more than capable of handling Dubai’s scorching sunlight. It’s also 12 per cent thinner, with a significantly bigger battery, and more comfortable to wear.

Samsung says the 5,000-nit display is the brightest fitted to any smartwatch, based on its own market research as of June 2026. The 47mm Ultra2 keeps its shock-resistant titanium casing but drops to 10.7mm thick and 61.5g, and both watches move to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite platform running Wear OS 7 and One UI 9 Watch. The Watch9 comes in 40mm and 44mm aluminium cases with a 3,000-nit display.

Both watches run off our BioActive sensor, and the point is to turn that data into something you can act on rather than just numbers on a screen.
New across both models: an FDA-cleared Sleep Apnea feature using AI algorithms to detect breathing disruptions; Vitals, which monitors a personal baseline during sleep and flags significant deviations; a Heart Health Score with lifestyle recommendations; Daily Cardio Load, which advises on workout volume and recovery; a Fitness Index; and hearing protection alerts for unsafe noise levels. The Ultra2 adds Trail Run, which tracks elevation, climbing progress and terrain impact, and Nutrition Alert, which estimates sweat loss against body weight to prompt hydration during exercise.

This generation of the Watch Ultra2 is a diving-certified instrument. It’s beyond a watch right now. If any of you enjoy diving, you need to buy certified computer equipment — that’s in the thousands of dollars.

The Watch Ultra2 is certified as a diving instrument. It can gauge exactly how deep you’re diving. It will coach you, because you can’t just come up — you need to manage your saturation difference, and it will guide you gradually on how fast you need to ascend. For a casual dive or snorkelling, this is a great device, and you don’t have to buy another one. It’s the same device on your wrist.

The Watch Ultra2 is rated IP69K and 10ATM and carries EN13319 dive certification, with a water resistance rating of 100 metres under ISO 22810. It begins tracking depth, dive time and water temperature automatically on entering the water. The ascent-speed and safe-dive-limit features Abu Shamat describes come via a dedicated Diving app developed with Italian diving equipment maker Mares, which Samsung says will arrive later this year rather than at launch.

What about the battery being a weak point on the smartwatches?

We heard the consumer on that. We’re now talking about an 800mAh battery; we’re coming into smartphone territory. That should be close to a week of average use, and if you’re heavy on sports, 72 hours plus. Fast charging is there, and it’s lighter and more comfortable on the wrist.

At a glance: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 series specifications

Additional display and camera features

Charging and battery notes: Charging figures are based on Samsung laboratory results using a 45W or 25W adapter from zero, with services and screen switched off. Adapters are sold separately. Battery figures are typical values, with rated capacities of 4,854mAh, 4,660mAh and 4,174mAh respectively.

Water resistance note: IP48 ratings are based on submersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for 30 minutes and may diminish with wear.

Samsung’s 5,000-nit figure is localised peak brightness under high ambient light, full-screen brightness differs, and it is based on Samsung’s own market research as of June 2026.

Dubai Municipality has opened an integrated pet shelter in Warsan and launched a digital adoption platform as part of efforts to strengthen animal welfare services and encourage responsible pet ownership in the emirate.

The new facility, located at the Birds and Pets Market in Warsan, provides a dedicated environment for stray and loose companion animals, offering veterinary care, rehabilitation services and adoption support before animals are matched with suitable families.

The shelter is designed to support the sustainable management of stray animal populations while following internationally recognised health and welfare standards, Dubai Municipality said.

The facility includes a veterinary clinic, a surgical operating theatre equipped with advanced veterinary technologies, a pet grooming unit, a rehabilitation area, a pre-adoption viewing space and interactive adoption rooms where prospective owners can meet animals.

It also includes a centre for reuniting lost pets with their owners after verifying identification and ownership details.

Dr Naseem Mohammed Rafei, acting CEO of the Environment, Health and Safety Agency at Dubai Municipality, said the shelter would strengthen the emirate’s veterinary and public health services.

Pet shelter to promote animal welfare

“The opening of the integrated pet shelter marks an important step in the continued development of Dubai Municipality’s public health and veterinary services. The facility enhances our ability to provide sustainable, efficient and proactive services that protect animal welfare and contribute to a higher quality of life across the emirate,” he said.

The shelter supports the “One Health” approach, which recognises the link between human, animal and environmental health, while promoting responsible adoption and pet ownership, he added.

Alongside the facility opening, Dubai Municipality launched a digital adoption platform that allows residents to view animals available for adoption and access information about their health and behavioural profiles.

The platform is intended to simplify the adoption process by helping potential owners make informed decisions based on each animal’s needs.

As part of the initiative, Dubai Municipality has signed memoranda of understanding with Vets Fur Pets Veterinary Clinic and Phoenix Veterinary Clinic to support animal healthcare and welfare programmes.

The partnerships will focus on the treatment and rehabilitation of stray and loose companion animals, community awareness initiatives, knowledge sharing and the implementation of humane animal management programmes.

These include trap-neuter-return (TNR) programmes for stray cats, as well as treatment and care programmes for stray dogs and cats.

Dubai Municipality said it follows a scientific and humane approach to managing stray and loose companion animals, including providing medical care and implementing internationally recognised sterilisation and vaccination programmes.

Under TNR initiatives, stray cats are humanely trapped, neutered and vaccinated where required before being returned to their original locations, provided this does not pose a risk to public safety or animal welfare.

The opening follows the launch earlier this year of Dubai Municipality’s “Ihsan” smart feeding stations, which introduced 12 AI-powered feeding units across several locations in Dubai to support stray and loose companion animals.

The municipality said the initiatives form part of broader efforts to promote animal welfare, sustainability and responsible community practices across Dubai.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militants fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday, but the US held back from launching air strikes on Iran for the first night in two weeks.

Washington gave no immediate explanation of why it had abruptly halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes in retaliation for Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz since an interim deal to end hostilities collapsed.

There were also no reports on Saturday of attacks from Iran on its Gulf neighbours, like those which have been taking place daily in response to the US attacks.

Axios, citing two unidentified sources familiar with the matter, said President Donald Trump on Friday directed the military not to conduct new strikes against Iran. On Saturday, a senior US official told Reuters that Trump “has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way.”

On Friday, Trump said the ‌US and Iran were in talks to ​negotiate an end ​to their conflict, but ⁠repeated that Tehran ​was not yet ready ​for a deal.

Despite the lull in the Gulf, fighting between Iran‘s Houthi allies and Saudi Arabia was a sign that the war, which has already disrupted energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, could be spreading to a second major shipping route, and reigniting Yemen’s own civil war.

War threatens to spread to Yemen

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had successfully struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu.

Two Asia-based trading sources said that they had been informed of potential damage to fuel and oil storage sites at Jizan. Aramco 2222.SE did not respond to requests for comment.

In Yanbu, two ballistic missiles aimed at oil installations were intercepted by a US-made Patriot battery operated in Saudi Arabia by the Greek military under an agreement with Riyadh, Greek security sources said.

Yanbu is Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port, where millions of barrels a day are loaded, and has become the main route out for Saudi oil skirting the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blockaded by Iran. Jizan, on the Red Sea close to the Yemeni border, is the site of a refinery with a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day.

In Yemen, the air force of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, which has opposed the Houthis for more than a decade, struck Houthi missile and drone launch sites and arms depots in the Marib and al-Jawf provinces, Yemeni officials said.

Earlier, the Saudi-led military alliance said it had bombed Houthi military positions on Friday in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.

The Yemeni officials said both sides in Yemen’s civil war were mobilising forces along the front.

Saudi-led coalition strikes Hodeidah

Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling against the Houthis for more than a decade since the Iran-aligned fighters captured Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

The Yemeni civil war has been paused under a ceasefire since 2022. But that truce broke down this month, with the Houthis effectively joining the wider war their Iranian allies have waged since being attacked by the US and Israel.

The Houthis have declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia over the past week, and Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said all Saudi oil facilities could be targets.

Global oil prices soared this week, with Brent crude spiking above $100 a barrel for the first time since May.

Trump on Friday vowed “major military punishment” for Tehran and the Houthis after the Houthis struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea.

An interim truce meant to end the war effectively collapsed two weeks ago, with US forces striking targets in southern Iran in response to Iranian disruption of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense issued a fresh precautionary warning for residents of Yanbu Governorate on Saturday before later announcing that the potential danger had passed.

In a post on X, the Civil Defense said the National Early Warning Platform had issued an alert for Yanbu Governorate, urging residents to follow official safety instructions. The authorities did not disclose the nature of the potential threat.

A short time later, around 7:25 UAE time, the Civil Defense confirmed the situation had returned to normal.

“Alert: The danger has passed in Yanbu Governorate. For your safety, continue following Civil Defense instructions and avoid gathering and filming. In case of emergency, call (911),” the authority said.

The latest warning came after Saudi authorities earlier issued similar alerts for both Yanbu Governorate on the Red Sea coast and Jazan Province in the country’s southwest.

Officials subsequently confirmed that the danger had passed in both areas, with no reports of casualties or damage.

The alerts come amid heightened regional tensions after Saudi Arabia resumed military operations against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Late on Friday, the Saudi-led coalition said it had launched what it described as a proportionate military response against Houthi military targets in Yemen’s western Hodeidah province after the group targeted commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

The coalition said Hodeidah Port had not been targeted and stressed that Yemeni ports remain open to maritime traffic. The Houthis, however, accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out air strikes on Kamaran Island and telecommunications facilities in Hodeidah.

The renewed hostilities follow the Houthis’ announcement earlier this week that they would ban Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Saudi Arabia responded by pledging a “firm and forceful” response and introducing measures aimed at protecting commercial shipping transiting one of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes.

Authorities have not indicated whether Saturday’s warnings in Yanbu and Jazan were directly linked to the ongoing military escalation.

US missiles struck targets across Iran on Friday and President Donald Trump vowed “major military punishment” for Tehran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, though he once again left open the door to a diplomatic deal with Iran.

Two weeks after the collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, Iranian armed forces responded by firing at US bases in neighbouring Arab countries and warning that they could strike non-military buildings there used by US personnel.

Trump has threatened in recent days to widen targets to Iran’s energy plants and bridges, send ground forces to seize its oil hub of Kharg Island, and bomb a deep-underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe Mountain.

On Friday, he said he had not yet made a decision on new major strikes, however.

“We are talking to them,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think they’re being serious. I think … they are being by far the most serious that we’ve seen them, but that doesn’t mean we get there.”

Asked what the exit strategy was for the Iran war, Trump said, “There’s a military exit where we just keep going just the way we are, and we can even make it a heavier dose, and it’s knocking out everything they have. Or there’s a smarter strategy that you make a deal.”

But he added, “We’re locked and loaded. We’re ready to go.”

Later in the day, Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would visit the United States next week. The two leaders are expected to meet on Tuesday as the US-Israeli war on Iran completes five months.

The key waterway of the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Gulf, has so far been the focus of a war that has killed thousands in almost five months, stoked global inflation and fanned fears of an economic downturn.

The Houthis, who control northern and western Yemen, have also declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, which has diverted millions of barrels of oil by pipeline each day to the Red Sea to skirt Iran’s near-total blockade of Hormuz.

After the Houthis said they had struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea on Thursday, Trump said he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by the fighters.

A Saudi vessel sustained minor hull damage from an attack in the Red Sea on Friday, state news agency SPA said.

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it struck Houthi military sites there, saying they were used to threaten commercial shipping.

Reuters could not immediately verify the reports.

Iran threatens US forces

The US military launched air strikes on Iran late on Thursday and early on Friday, racking up 13 consecutive nights of attacks.

In a statement on X, the Iranian health ministry said 59 people had been killed and 666 wounded since the resumption of clashes with US forces in late June.

Iranian media cited the head of Iran’s top joint military command as saying Iran would kill a member of the US forces for every Iranian killed.

The war has killed 18 US service members. The Pentagon has said 100 service members had been injured since July 7. Officials have told Reuters that more than 500 US troops have been injured so far.

Pakistan exploring path for talks, sources say

Brent futures stood down more than $4 at a little over $96 on Friday, after the previous day’s attack on the Saudi tankers in the Red Sea’s Bab el-Mandeb strait boosted oil prices 7 per cent to $100 per barrel for the first time since May.

Sources said Pakistan was exploring a path towards resuming stalled talks between the US and Iran to end the war, after China initiated a push.

Exploratory discussions took place during a visit by Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to Islamabad this week — his second in the last 10 days, three Pakistani sources said.

Tankers rerouting, shipping insurance rises

The Houthi attacks forced several other tankers to turn around and head north through the Suez Canal, which would be a much longer route to Asia, by sailing around Africa.

Still, half of the 18 ships exiting Bab el-Mandeb on Thursday were carrying crude oil, including two Chinese supertankers, while the number of tankers crossing through the Strait of Hormuz fell to just one, the lowest since May 7.

US warns citizens in Mideast to exercise caution

The Iranian army said it had attacked US military equipment depots at Al-Adiri, officially named Camp Buehring, in northern Kuwait, and the positions of US troops at Camp Arifjan and at Camp Doha, near Kuwait City.

In the early evening, Kuwait said its air defences were intercepting “hostile” targets launched from Iran.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had significantly damaged a surveillance tower used by the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.