A drone strike sparked a fire on the edge of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in Abu Dhabi on Sunday – in what authorities called an ‘unprovoked terrorist attack’
The United Arab Emirates has given an update on a drone attack that sparked a serious fire at a nuclear power plant over the weekend.
The drone strike sparked a fire on the edge of the nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, in what authorities called an “unprovoked terrorist attack.”
No one was blamed for the attack on the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, but it highlighted the risk of renewed war as the United States and Iran signalled they were ready to fight again.
The UAE’s defence ministry said on X that there were three drones which targeted the plant on May 17 and that two were “successfully engaged” while the other hit an electrical generator.
The drones are claimed to have come from Iraq and previously Iran allied Shiite militias in the country have launched drone attacks targeting Gulf Arab states in the war.
Meanwhile, the UAE said that over the past 48 hours defence systems had been able to engage six drones which it claimed were targeting “civilian and vital areas”.
“The Ministry of Defence announces that during the past 48 hours, the UAE air defence systems have successfully detected and engaged 6 hostile drones that attempted to target civilian and vital areas in the country,” read the post on social media from the Ministry of Defence.
“The air defence forces succeeded in intercepting and neutralizing the hostile targets with the highest levels of readiness and efficiency, without recording any human casualties or impact on the safety of vital facilities.
“In the context of completing the investigations related to the brazen attack on the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant on May 17, 2026, the results of technical tracking and monitoring confirmed that the three drones, two of which were successfully engaged, while the third struck an electrical generator outside the internal perimeter of the plant on that date, in addition to the drones intercepted later, were all originating from Iraqi territory.”
The attack, “whether carried out by the principal actor or through one of its proxies, represents a dangerous escalation,” Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, previously said on social media.
The $20 billion Barakah nuclear power plant was built by the UAE with the help of South Korea and went online in 2020. It is the only nuclear power plant in the Arab world and can provide a quarter of the energy needs in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms that is home to Dubai.
