Horror in Doha, Qatar's capital: Explosions echo as smoke billows into the sky

Doha, the Qatari capital, appeared tense as a series of blasts reverberated and smoke rose into the sky. The incidents occurred after Qatari officials announced evacuations of residents living near the U.S. Embassy complex in Doha. The tense moment happened on Thursday, 5 March 2026 local time. AFP journalists cited by detikNews described the blasts as the strongest since Iran began targeting the Gulf state at the end of the weekend. Thick black smoke rose in the Doha sky. It was not known whether there were any casualties or damage from the blasts in Qatar. The blasts came a few hours after Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Foreign Minister, criticised Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a telephone conversation between the two on Thursday, 5 March. The conversation marked the first high-level contact between the two countries since Iran targeted Qatar with drone and missile strikes. The Qatari Foreign Ministry said in the phone call with Araghchi that Sheikh Mohammed accused Iran of trying to “endanger neighbouring countries and drag them into a war that is not theirs”. Sheikh Mohammed was also said to have rejected Iran’s claims that its strikes were directed only at U.S. targets, not Qatar. He noted that several Iranian attacks hit civilian and residential areas. In addition to Doha, blasts were heard in Manama, the Bahraini capital, on Thursday, 5 March. In Saudi Arabia, authorities said they had intercepted three cruise missiles and three drones on the same day. Referring to a report by the British maritime security agency UKMTO, a tanker was hit by a ‘large explosion’ triggering a sea oil spill off Kuwait’s coast.