Iranian drone attack kills one in Kuwait after US strikes Qeshm Island

Clashes continue as diplomacy between Washington and Tehran shows little progress.

Clashes in the Gulf region have escalated, with diplomacy showing little progress, as Bahrain and Kuwait report attacks by Iran after the US military 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.

Kuwait’s foreign ministry said Iranian attacks on its territory killed one person and injured scores of others, as well as forcing its airport to close and damaging unnamed diplomatic missions.

Kuwait said later on Wednesday that flights for its flagship airline had resumed.

“The General Authority of Civil Aviation announced on Wednesday the resumption of all Kuwait Airways flights only, from Kuwait International Airport,” it said in a statement.

India’s foreign ministry condemned the attack, confirming that the killed person was an Indian national.

“We condemn the attack on the Kuwait International Airport today in which an Indian national has died and several of our nationals are injured,” India’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “We again call upon parties to cease such attacks,” it added.

At least 63 people were injured in Iran’s attack, including airport workers and passengers, the country’s health ministry said in a separate statement.

Kuwait’s defence ministry said it had detected 30 ballistic missiles and drones launched by Iran.

“These missiles were intercepted over several residential areas, resulting in some debris falling. […] This heinous Iranian aggression targeted civilian and vital facilities,” defence ministry spokesman Saud Abdulaziz al-Atwan said.

Following the attack, the foreign ministry summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Kuwait, Hamed Hamid Yaqoubi Far, and handed him a protest note that included the demand that two Iranian embassy staff leave the country within 24 hours.

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, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (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 US Central Command (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