By Alexander Cornwell and Jonathan Landay TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) - Iran launched fresh attacks on the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, the kind of strikes on U.S. Gulf allies that President Donald Trump said had not been expected,

Israel struck Iran’s South Pars gas field, the largest such facility in the world and which Tehran shares with Qatar, according to people familiar with the matter. The attack was designed to cut off an economic pipeline for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,

By Ben Aris in Berlin Israel’s attack on South Pars gas complex has knocked out about a fifth of Qatar’s LNG production and export capacity and the damage will take “years” to repair, according to the state-owned operating company.

Israel struck Iran's South Pars gas field, prompting retaliation against Qatar's energy facilities. US President Donald Trump blamed Israel for the initial strike and warned of massive US retaliation if Qatar is attacked again.

US President Donald Trump said Washington had no prior knowledge of Israel’s strike on Iran’s South Pars Gas Field. At the same time, he said there will be no attacks by Israel on the facility unless Iran targets 'innocents'.

President Trump said Israel was responsible for the attack, but vowed to “massively” destroy the gas field if Tehran hit Qatar’s energy facilities in retaliation.

World leaders are scrambling to contain a spiraling Middle East conflict on Thursday after Israel and Iran traded strikes on gas production facilities.

Texas A&M students at the flagship's Qatar campus have sheltered in place or fled the country amid the escalating war between U.S., Israel and Iran.