Iranian Missile Strikes On Ras Laffan Causes 'Extensive Damage' At Major Gas Hub In Qatar

New Delhi: Iran struck the Ras Laffan Industrial City, which is the world's largest gas hub in Qatar, on Wednesday, the strikes caused "extensive damage" to the key facility, the Gulf state's energy firm said on Thursday and a massive fire was visible from roughly 30 kilometres away.

What did Qatar say?

QatarEnergy, the Gulf state's energy firm in a statement on Thursday said that "several of its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities were the subject of missile attacks, causing sizeable fires and extensive further damage after the earlier strike."

QatarEnergy also said that at the Ras Laffan facility  emergency teams had been "deployed immediately to contain the resulting fires," after it was "the subject of missile attacks".

What did the officials say?

Qatar's foreign ministry in a statement condemned the airstrike by Iran and called it a "brutal Iranian attack targeting Ras Laffan" saying the targeting represented a "direct threat to its national security".

The ministry said that the attack is "dangerous escalation, flagrant violation of state sovereignty, and a direct threat to its national security and regional stability.”

Did Trump also react?

US President Donald Trump in a social media post threatened to destroy the South Pars gas field if Qatar’s energy facilities were attacked again.

Trump said that if Iran targeted Qatar again, then the US will retaliate and "massively blow up the entirety of the field."

"I do not want to authorise this level of violence and destruction because of the long-term implications that it will have on the future of Iran,” Trump said, further adding that but he will "not hesitate to do so."

What happen before the strike?

Earlier, Iran had vowed to target energy infrastructure across the Gulf following a US-Israeli attack on its own facilities.

The development comes came hours after US-Israeli strikes hit Iranian facilities on the opposite side of the massive South Pars gas reservoir that is shared by Iran and Qatar.

The incident prompted Iran's president to warn of "uncontrollable consequences" of attacks on energy infrastructure.

"This will complicate the situation and could have uncontrollable consequences, the scope of which could engulf the entire world," Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X.