UAE Air Defenses Intercept 19 Iranian Missiles and Drones in Largest Attack Since Ceasefire

United Arab Emirates air defenses engaged 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones launched from Iran on Monday evening, in what the UAE Ministry of Defense called the largest single-night attack on the Gulf federation since the start of the war on Feb. 28. Three civilians were moderately injured and a fire briefly burned at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone before being extinguished by emergency crews.

For the first time since the April 8 conditional ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, the UAE's National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority issued public missile alerts in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, urging residents to seek shelter. Loud blasts heard above all three cities were the result of successful interceptions, the authority said. Universities and schools shifted to online instruction Tuesday and several flights into Dubai International were briefly held.

"The Ministry is fully prepared and ready to deal with any threats and will respond decisively to any attempt to undermine the country's security," the Defense Ministry said in its first statement after the wave of intercepts. Officials said the engagement was the most kinetically intense since the war's opening days, when Iran fired hundreds of drones at U.S. and Emirati military bases following the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Natanz and Fordow.

Since fighting began, UAE air defenses have collectively dealt with 549 ballistic missiles, 29 cruise missiles and 2,260 drones, the ministry disclosed in an unusual public tally. Ten civilians have been killed and 227 injured across the country in that period, with much of the damage concentrated around Fujairah's oil and shipping infrastructure on the Gulf of Oman coast. Three Emirati military personnel listed as "martyrs" have died in the line of duty.

The strikes appear to have been timed to coincide with the launch of the U.S.-led "Project Freedom" operation in the Strait of Hormuz earlier in the day. A senior Iranian official, Ebrahim Azizi, warned in remarks to state television that any U.S. interference in the strait would be treated as a violation of the ceasefire and would justify "decisive measures." Iran has not formally claimed responsibility for the missile and drone barrage on the UAE, though Iranian state media celebrated the strikes.

Diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman convened an emergency Gulf Cooperation Council meeting on Tuesday morning. UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke by phone with Trump and with French President Emmanuel Macron, his office said. The Emirati ambassador to the United Nations was expected to address the Security Council later in the week to demand a renewed enforcement mechanism for the ceasefire.