Deadly drone strike on Kuwait airport as Iran, US trade fire

June 05, 2026 00:00:00

This grab taken from the CCTV images released by Kuwait's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows an explosion following a drone strike at Terminal 1 (T1) of Kuwait International Airport on Wednesday. — AFP

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait, June 4 (BSS): An Iranian drone strike on a passenger terminal at Kuwait's international airport killed an Indian citizen and wounded 63 people on Wednesday, as conflict flared between Tehran and US forces in the Gulf.

Kuwait's military condemned the strike as an act of "criminal Iranian aggression", while Iran's Revolutionary Guards accused US forces of provoking a response by targeting a tanker and a communications tower on the country's Qeshm Island.

The attacks constitute one of the more severe tests yet of a fragile April 8 ceasefire that paused more than a month of war sparked by the US-Israeli bombing of Iran, and has largely held despite sporadic exchanges of fire.

India's foreign ministry confirmed that one of its nationals was killed and several others were wounded in the airport strike.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of "playing with fire".

"Iran surely knows what the (US) president has said, that if necessary, there'll be a full-scale return to military action," Netanyahu warned in an interview with US channel CNBC, referring to threats made by Donald Trump.

Kuwaiti health ministry spokesman Abdullah al-Sanad said 63 people were treated for injuries "including head wounds, cerebral hemorrhages, amputations and injuries resulting from explosions".

Kuwait suspended air traffic and diverted arriving planes to other destinations, but later restarted

Kuwait Airways flights.

The international airport has been targeted several times during the war, and had only fully resumed operations on Monday.

The Gulf nation said it detected a total of 30 ballistic missiles and drones launched Wednesday during the "heinous Iranian aggression".

It denied Iranian claims that Kuwaiti territory and airspace had been used to attack the country.

Hassan Sheikh, a 40-year-old Pakistani resident of Kuwait who lives near the airport said he heard explosions throughout the night, adding: "For the first time, my children felt how serious the situation was."