Iranian drones damage Kuwait airport, suspending commercial flights

Iranian drones struck Kuwait International Airport’s passenger building on Wednesday, injuring several people and forcing Kuwait to suspend commercial flights at one of its most important civilian gateways. Authorities said traffic was halted immediately and flights were diverted elsewhere until further notice, deepening the shock for a country that had only reopened the airport on June 1 after an earlier closure tied to the Iran war.

Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi reported that “a number of hostile drones” targeted the passenger building and caused severe damage. The attack hit the airport’s T1 area and left some facilities badly damaged, turning a symbol of routine regional travel into another front in the widening conflict.

The airport strike followed hours of intense regional crossfire. U.S. Central Command said Iran fired two ballistic missiles overnight toward American forces stationed in Kuwait, and that both were intercepted before they could cause casualties. CENTCOM said no U.S. personnel were harmed. It also said it carried out “self-defense” strikes on Iranian radar and command-and-control sites used for drones, then later hit a military ground control station on Qeshm Island, near the Strait of Hormuz.

Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry had already described the earlier missile attacks as a “dangerous escalation” and said Kuwait reserved the right to hold Iran fully responsible. The latest damage to the airport pushed the conflict into an even more civilian setting, with disruption now reaching air travel, logistics and the sense of safety around a major transport node in the Gulf.

The exchange unfolded as the broader ceasefire remained fragile and diplomacy between Washington and Tehran showed signs of strain. The Associated Press reported that Iran had stopped communicating with mediators about extending the ceasefire, while Donald Trump disputed reports that talks had broken down. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said its retaliatory strikes should serve as “a lesson” for the United States, and the hardline Iranian lawmaker Esmail Kowsari called for a much stronger military response.

For Kuwait, the immediate consequence was not abstract strategy but grounded aircraft, displaced passengers and a damaged terminal. The wider risk now extends beyond the main combatants to Gulf states such as Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, where airports, military facilities and commercial corridors sit within range of the conflict’s next escalation.