Kuwait says morning Iran strikes hit airport radar, caused injuries

Kuwait said Iranian strikes that targeted its territory on Thursday morning and forced a temporary airspace closure had damaged an airport radar and caused injuries.

This marked the second Iranian attack on Kuwait’s only international airport in just over a week, after a drone strike killed an Indian national and injured 63 people on June 3.

“The airport’s radar was targeted this morning,” Kuwait’s civil aviation body said in a letter addressed to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

It added that the attack “injured people and caused significant material damage and losses affecting radar facilities, equipment and air traffic management systems”.

Earlier, Kuwait said it had reopened its airspace to commercial traffic after the latest volley of Iranian attacks caused a brief shutdown.

Kuwait’s military had earlier said air defences were engaging “hostile aerial targets”, after the United States launched fresh attacks against Iran.

Read more: Iran targets US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain

A foreign ministry statement expressed “Kuwait’s condemnation and denunciation of the continued sinful and repeated Iranian attacks”.

Iran has repeatedly targeted Gulf airports and other civilian infrastructure throughout the war.

Last week, Iran accused Kuwait and Bahrain of allowing the United States to use their territory to launch attacks on an Iranian tanker and island.

Tehran said it attacked the US Navy’s Middle East headquarters in Bahrain as well as the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, but did not mention the airport.

Kuwait has denied the accusations and demanded that two Iranian embassy staff leave the country.

Last week’s Kuwait airport attack was particularly bloody, with authorities reporting some of the injured suffered from head wounds, brain hemorrhaging or had to undergo amputations.