Kuwait City (Kuwait) (AFP) – A drone strike on a passenger terminal in Kuwait’s international airport wounded several people Wednesday and forced air traffic to be suspended, as Iranian and US forces traded attacks in the Gulf. The attacks marked one of the more severe tests yet of a fragile April 8 ceasefire, that has largely held despite sporadic strikes after more than a month of war sparked by the US and Israeli attack on Iran.
Kuwaiti officials blamed the attack on the airport on Iran, whose Revolutionary Guards accused US forces of triggering the night’s sequence of attacks by targeting a communications tower on the country’s Qeshm Island, forcing it to respond. However, with Bahrain also complaining of overnight drone attacks from Iran, the United Arab Emirates attempted to rally its Gulf neighbours in opposition to Tehran. “In light of Iran’s repeated aggression against the sisterly states of Kuwait and Bahrain, a firm, unified, and cohesive Gulf stance is imperative,” UAE presidential advisor Anwar Gargash posted on social media. “This aggression does not just target one country, it targets us all.”
Kuwait’s ministry of defence spokesman Brigadier General Saud Abdulaziz Al-Atwan described the airport strikes as “criminal Iranian aggression which resulted in significant material damage to the building and injuries.” Al-Atwan did not say how many people were hurt but noted that those wounded had received medical care. Kuwait’s state news agency Kuna reported that the civil aviation authority had suspended air traffic and transferred arriving flights to alternative airports after “Terminal One came under Iranian attacks causing casualties and damage.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards did not confirm they had targeted the airport, but a statement indicated that, in response to a US attack, “their air base and helicopters located in one of the countries in the region, as well as the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, were attacked by missiles and drones from the IRGC Aerospace Force.” Kuwait’s international airport had been targeted several times during the war and had only resumed full operations on June 1.
The oil-rich Gulf nation, a US ally, has been on the receiving end of Iranian attacks after the US and Israel attacked Iran and killed its supreme leader in late February. Tehran has repeatedly accused Kuwait and other Gulf countries of allowing US forces to launch strikes from their soil. Earlier, the US military stated it had “successfully defeated” a series of Iranian missile and drone attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain and confirmed it had conducted strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island. “Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart en route, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were immediately intercepted by US and Bahrain air defense forces,” Centcom said. Bahrain authorities confirmed they had intercepted three Iranian missiles and several drones.
The escalation came after US, Israeli, and Lebanese officials met in Washington for direct talks on ending the parallel conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the militant group was the only impediment to a deal, which the Lebanese embassy in Washington said would initially only cover Israeli attacks on Beirut and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory, before expanding in scope. Israel has been fighting Hezbollah since the group dragged Lebanon into the wider Middle East war by attacking Israel on March 2 in support of Iran.
Neither side has publicly accepted Trump’s deal, with senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qomati telling AFP in a written statement that the group “will not accept a partial ceasefire.” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Israeli strikes, some of them deadly, on around 30 locations across the south on Tuesday. Hezbollah, meanwhile, claimed it had attacked Israeli troops in southern Lebanese lands they occupy but did not claim attacks in Israel.
Rubio said Washington wanted the talks to remain independent of those with Iran to end the wider Middle East war. However, Iran has repeatedly linked the two conflicts, and on Monday stated that Israel’s expanding campaign in Lebanon risked ending the US-Iran ceasefire established on April 8. In recent days, Israeli troops staged their deepest ground offensive into Lebanon in two decades.
Citing what he described as Hezbollah’s “repeated violations” of a ceasefire officially in place since April 17 but never respected by either side, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold. According to US site Axios, US President Donald Trump pressured Netanyahu to back down, calling him “crazy” in a phone call. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz subsequently stated that Israel had established “a new equation” backed by Washington that his country would hit the Beirut suburbs if Hezbollah continued firing at Israel.
A medical source told AFP on Wednesday that six people had been killed in Israeli strikes near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. Previously, the health ministry had reported that Israeli attacks had killed more than 3,465 people since March 2. At least 26 Israeli soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed in the same period.
© 2024 AFP
