Some targets are hidden beneath rooftops and sunshades, invisible from space. Others span just a few meters. Many have purposes not immediately obvious to anyone without expertise in fields like oil refining, nuclear technology or smelting.
Without visiting the sites, Reuters could not always determine how successful Gulf air defenses were or the full extent of the damage. But time and again, Reuters found, the Iranian strikes were precise and the equipment struck was vital.
Ryan Stevens, a former US Marine Corps special operations airstrike coordinator who reviewed Reuters’ findings, said Iran’s strikes showed “precision, targeting expertise, and patience.”
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Some places suffered periods of near-daily bombardment and face billions of dollars in repairs and lost revenue. Others, like one of the world’s largest aluminum smelters in Abu Dhabi, were devastated in a single day. Some of the attacks were carried out by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and the Iraqi Shiite militias controlled from Tehran.
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“Every single target was civilian: Airports, terminals, refineries, gas processing plants, residential areas, shopping malls, and most recently, the Barakah nuclear power plant,” Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, known as ADNOC, said in a May interview with the Atlantic Council.
“They are targeting our infrastructure,” said Al Jaber, who is also the UAE minister of industry and advanced technology. “But what they're really targeting is our way of life.”
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US officials believe Iran may have received intelligence from Russia and China. In addition, Iran relies upon networks of informants with access to sensitive sites to pass along photos and location information, according to three officials familiar with the issue – one from Iran and two in the Gulf.
Asked about intelligence sharing, China’s Foreign Ministry said it “consistently and strictly fulfilled its international obligations.” Russia did not respond to a request for comment.
The three officials said Iran had information including the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant’s floorplan and the location of an electrical substation that was struck at the plant.
The UAE said the drone that struck the nuclear plant on May 17 was one of three sent “by armed factions in Iraq.” The strike on the substation forced one of its four reactors onto emergency diesel generators, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In imagery captured June 16, the earliest clear view Reuters could obtain, there was damage in two places on the roof of a building housing the controls for the plant’s electricity lines – about 130 meters from one of the reactors.
The attack, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said, demonstrated a detailed level of knowledge about the plant.
"This means whoever was or is behind this knew exactly what they were doing,” Grossi said during a June 2 visit to the UAE.
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Kuwait’s airport was struck eight times. One hit came two days after Kuwait had reopened a major terminal upon completing repairs from a prior attack.
Iran struck advanced digital infrastructure such as Amazon data centers in the UAE and in Bahrain, where service remained down six months later because the damaged equipment couldn’t be fixed. Amazon declined to comment directly about the Reuters findings but pointed to a public statement from September 15 saying the company continued “to work on recovering regional resources.”
And Iran cut off operations for all 1,262 smelting cells at the Emirates Global Aluminium Al Taweelah smelter. It took two months until the first cell could be restarted. By late August, only a quarter of them had been brought online, the company said. Production is not expected to return to normal until 2027, according to the company.
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The threat was especially acute for Kuwait, a desert country that draws 90% of its drinking water from desalination plants. These facilities are often connected to coastal power plants because filtering the water takes massive amounts of heat and electricity.
Reuters found Iran hit at least four of Kuwait’s eight dual power-and-desalination plants from March 2 through July 20. Some were struck repeatedly. During one four-day period in July, Iran attacked what the government described as “several” desalination plants, including one at least twice in that brief period.
Low said Kuwait does not have the natural water resources to survive without its desalination plants. “If you were to attack enough of their capacity, we’re talking about running out of water in days or weeks,” he said.
Kuwait’s government conducted a campaign asking citizens to conserve electricity and water in “the spirit of shared responsibility.”
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The Jazan refinery, less than 100 kilometers from Yemen’s border, was hit at least four times from July 25 through September 7, Reuters found. The first of those attacks damaged the refinery’s tank farm and the adjacent Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle complex, which transforms oil into the gas that powers the refinery, said Stevenson of IIR Energy.
Jazan’s refining volumes dropped to zero after the attacks, according to Stevenson and two people familiar with Aramco operations. Kpler said only one ship has been loaded at the refinery since July 24.
Since the start of the war, Iranian-linked strikes have damaged five of Saudi’s nine biggest refineries and three of its major oil processing hubs, including what Aramco describes as the world’s largest, Reuters found.