Bahraini civil defense vehicles respond to the Fontana Towers residential building in Manama on March 6, 2026, after an Iranian drone strike ignited a fire in the upper floors. (Bahrain interior ministry)
MANAMA, Bahrain — Iranian drones slammed into two high-rise residential buildings in this capital city early Friday, sending residents scrambling down darkened stairwells as a separate drone targeted a building that houses the Israeli Embassy.
That drone, headed toward the Bahrain Financial Harbour Towers in the city’s popular Bahrain Bay neighborhood, was intercepted and destroyed, Reuters reported Friday.
Drones struck the Fontana Towers at around 2:32 a.m., according to the Bahraini interior ministry, which confirmed that two residential buildings had sustained damage and that there were no deaths.
A second wave of explosions was reported across Manama shortly before 5:47 a.m. Bahrain TV reported multiple drone interceptions over the kingdom’s airspace by 6:40 a.m. Civil defense crews extinguished a fire in one of the affected buildings.
Manama is home to U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain, which hosts the headquarters of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet. Thousands of sailors and their families live in the city. The base is one of numerous U.S. installations that have come under attack across the Middle East since the war began Saturday. Bases in Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan also have been targeted.
The national emergency alert system urged residents of Bahrain to proceed to the nearest safe location and avoid main roads unless necessary.
Bahrain’s information ministry on Friday warned that anyone who films, posts or reposts videos from the scene is subject to legal accountability, calling such activity a violation that could harm security and public order. The warning was sent by text message to residents across the country.
On Thursday, Bahrain held urgent security talks with U.S. and U.K. defense officials under a bilateral security pact that requires each nation to meet at the most senior levels in the event of external aggression, according to Bahrain News Agency. National security adviser Lt. Gen. Shaikh Nasser met with Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, and Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, the British chief of the defense staff, to review the regional security situation and coordinate responses, the news agency reported.
Bahrain was not the only Persian Gulf state targeted on Friday. An Iranian cruise missile was intercepted and destroyed east of Saudi Arabia’s al-Kharj governorate, and three drones were later intercepted east of the Riyadh region, the country’s defense ministry said. Qatar intercepted a drone attack targeting Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, which hosts U.S. assets, the Qatari defense ministry said.
