Iranian drones struck Kuwait International Airport in the early hours of Wednesday, heavily damaging passenger terminals and injuring several people, as the broader exchange of fire between the United States and Iran showed no sign of abating.
Kuwait’s Defence Ministry confirmed that a number of hostile drones had targeted the airport’s passenger building, causing severe structural damage. Commercial flights were suspended immediately. Kuwait Airways announced it was halting all operations until further notice — a significant blow to an airport that had only just reopened on Monday after being shut since the conflict erupted in late February.
The attack did not occur in isolation. Late Tuesday, the U.S. military said it had launched retaliatory strikes against an Iranian military facility following Iranian missile fire directed at both Kuwait and Bahrain. Two of the missiles aimed at Kuwait broke apart before reaching their targets. Bahrain’s defence forces said they intercepted three missiles and destroyed several drones. American forces operating in Kuwait also shot down multiple incoming drones.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted the headquarters of U.S. naval forces in the region — a claim that could not be independently verified.
Kuwait has been caught repeatedly in the crossfire since Operation Epic Fury — the joint U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign — was launched on February 28. On March 1, an Iranian drone pierced Kuwait’s air defences and struck a U.S. tactical operations centre near Port Shuaiba, killing six American soldiers and wounding more than thirty. A government building in Kuwait City was also hit in April.
Wednesday’s strike on the airport, a civilian hub, marks one of the most visible attacks on Kuwaiti infrastructure since the war began, raising fresh alarm about how far Iran is willing to push its campaign against Gulf states hosting American forces — and how much further this war has yet to go.
