Kuwait’s main airport hit by Iranian drones amid escalating Gulf conflict

Kuwait briefly shut its main airport on Wednesday after Iranian drones struck a passenger terminal, killing one Indian national and injuring 63 people, according to AP and Kuwait’s authorities. The attack marked one of the most serious spillovers yet from the wider confrontation between Iran, the United States and Israel, and it forced a disruption at a facility that had only reopened days earlier after a previous closure linked to the war. (

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Kuwait’s defence ministry said “a number of hostile drones” hit the airport’s passenger building, while the country’s civil aviation authority later said Kuwait Airways had resumed limited operations from another terminal. No other flights were running at that point, AP reported. (apnews.com)

The violence quickly became a diplomatic crisis as well as an aviation one. Kuwait said it would “neither accept nor tolerate” the attack and expelled two Iranian diplomats. Iran, meanwhile, denied responsibility and claimed the damage was caused by a failed interceptor, a version the US Central Command rejected as false, saying the strike was deliberate and unjustified. (apnews.com)

Reports from Al Jazeera and ITV described severe damage to airport facilities and a suspension of commercial flights across the country as the airport’s activity was frozen. The Los Angeles Times said the blast underscored how travellers in the Gulf, long seen as relatively insulated from the conflict, were suddenly exposed to a far broader regional risk. (aljazeera.com)

The airport attack came amid a wider exchange of strikes across the Gulf, with US and Bahraini forces intercepting Iranian missiles and drones, and with Washington saying it had carried out retaliatory strikes on Iranian military sites. As mediators continue to seek a more durable ceasefire, the incident has added fresh pressure to regional air routes and fuel markets already unsettled by the conflict. (apnews.com)

Source: Noah Wire Services