Iranian drone hits Kuwait’s main airport after US strikes Qeshm Island

Clashes continue as diplomacy between Washington and Tehran shows little progress.A US-made Patriot missile launcher of the Kuwaiti air force [File: Kuwait Ministry of Defence via Reuters]Published On 3 Jun 2026Clashes in the Gulf region have escalated, with diplomacy showing little progress, as Bahrain and Kuwait report attacks by Iran while the US military announces “self-defence” strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island.According to Kuwait’s state news agency KUNA, the country’s international airport was hit by drones and missiles on Wednesday morning, causing severe damage to a number of airport facilities and forcing the airport’s activity to be frozen.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Lebanon hopes crunch talks in Washington will halt an Israeli invasionlist 2 of 4Iran war day 96: US, Iran trade new strikes across the Gulflist 3 of 4US says it attacked Iran’s Qeshm Island; Tehran targets Kuwait, Bahrainlist 4 of 4US says Iran’s new supreme leader alive and ‘increasingly engaging’end of listKuwait’s foreign ministry said Iranian attacks on its territory killed one person and wounded several others, as well as forcing its airport to close and damaging unnamed diplomatic missions.Kuwait’s foreign ministry condemned the attacks “that once again targeted vital and civilian infrastructure, including Kuwait-international-airport" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="40992" data-entity-type="location">Kuwait International Airport, killing one person and injuring others, in addition to causing damage to vital infrastructure including diplomatic missions”.On Tuesday, the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said it “successfully defeated” a series of Iranian missile and drone attacks in the Gulf.“Iran launched several ballistic missiles towards regional neighbours; however, all failed to hit their intended targets,” CENTCOM said in a statement.It said that attacks conducted against Kuwait and Bahrain by Tehran either fell short before reaching their targets or were successfully intercepted.The statement was made before Kuwait reported the attack on the airport on Wednesday morning.The US military also shot down three attack drones that had been launched by Iran “towards civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters”, CENTCOM said.US rejects claimsCENTCOM said its strikes in response targeted an “Iranian military ground control station” on Qeshm Island, adding that no US personnel were injured.Since the conflict began in late February, Iran has repeatedly attacked targets in the Gulf region where US military bases are located.In a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency, the IRGC claimed it had struck the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and an airbase in the region in response to the strike on Qeshm Island – a claim denied by CENTCOM.Qeshm Island is located in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the key shipping channel for oil and gas produced in the Gulf region, which has been effectively closed by Tehran since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran in late February.Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said the US administration’s stance is that the ceasefire is still ongoing.“We know that US President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, is pushing back against media reports suggesting that talks with Iran are no longer ongoing,” she said.“In fact, the US president is saying just the opposite: that they have been continuous, despite earlier in the week, the Iranians suggesting that those talks had been halted,” she added.Meanwhile, Iranian media reported that Tehran has not communicated with Washington for several days.Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned on Wednesday what it described as US attacks on an Iranian oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and a telecommunications tower on Qeshm Island, saying they violated a ceasefire understanding and international law.The ministry said Kuwait and Bahrain bore “direct and clear responsibility” for the attacks, alleging their territory and facilities had been used to support US military operations against Iran.Tehran said it reserved the right to self-defence and would use all available means to respond, including by targeting the source of any future attacks.Al Jazeera’s Almigdad Alruhaid, reporting from Tehran, said the latest tensions and clashes in the Gulf have been framed in Iran as a response to what they call “the US aggression” against the country.“The spokesman for parliament’s National Security Committee said the United States understands the language of missiles better than the language of diplomacy,” he said.“It is unclear whether all the escalation between the sides will halt the talks completely, or whether there is a pause in the exchange of messages between the sides.”Meanwhile, a top Emirati official called for a united stance from the Gulf after renewed attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain by Iran.“No Gulf state should be left to face these attacks alone, because the security of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states is interconnected, their interests are shared, and their destiny is one and the same,” said UAE presidential advisor Anwar Gargash in a post on X.The latest flare-up comes more than three months after the initial US and Israeli strikes on Iran, with the conflict mired in a deadlock under a shaky ceasefire, and the Strait of Hormuz largely closed to maritime traffic.A ceasefire has supposedly been in place between the US and Iran since April 8, but subsequent talks to try to agree on a permanent end to the conflict have so far been unsuccessful.Iran and the US said last week that they had reached a tentative initial agreement to halt the war. But the two sides have yet to sign off on the deal.Earlier, US forces fired a missile at a ship that was attempting to sail towards an Iranian port in violation of their blockade, disabling the vessel.Washington has now forcibly halted six ships it said were attempting to violate the blockade, which has been in place since April 13.Tehran said on Monday that Israel’s expanding campaign in Lebanon risked ending the US-Iran ceasefire.In the latest attacks by Israel on southern Lebanon over the past day, six people were killed and at least 48 people were wounded in the Tyre district, the Civil Defence agency told Al Jazeera.The attacks took place in al-Ain and the Bint Jbeil areas, and casualties included a paramedic, a doctor and health workers.A dramatic escalation in violence in Lebanon has seen Israeli troops stage their deepest incursion into the country in more than 20 years, conducting waves of heavy bombardments and threatening to attack the Beirut suburbs as the situation threatened to scupper a ceasefire in the wider US-Israel war on Iran.