{"id":44289,"date":"2026-03-01T01:30:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/?p=44289"},"modified":"2026-03-01T00:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T20:40:54","slug":"kuwait-airport-drone-strike-iran-retaliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/kuwait-airport-drone-strike-iran-retaliation\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuwait Airport Struck by Drone as Iran Retaliates, Halting Flights"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"background: #f7fafc; padding: 15px;\">\n<p><strong>Quick Read<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kuwait International Airport was hit by a drone on Saturday, February 28, 2026.<\/li>\n<li>The drone strike caused minor injuries to employees and material damage to the passenger building.<\/li>\n<li>Kuwait&#8217;s Ali al-Salem Air Base also faced ballistic missile attacks, which were intercepted.<\/li>\n<li>The attacks were part of Iran&#8217;s retaliation against US assets across the Middle East.<\/li>\n<li>Widespread airspace closures and flight cancellations disrupted air travel across the region, including Dubai, Qatar, and Bahrain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>KUWAIT CITY (Azat TV) \u2013<\/strong> Kuwait International Airport came under a drone attack on Saturday, February 28, 2026, causing minor injuries to several employees and material damage to its passenger building. The incident was part of a broader wave of retaliatory strikes launched by Iran against United States assets across the Middle East, which led to widespread airspace closures and flight cancellations, significantly disrupting air travel in the region.<\/p>\n<p>The attack on Kuwait International Airport was confirmed by Abdullah al-Rajhi, spokesperson for the General Authority of Civil Aviation in the State of Kuwait. He stated that the drone strike, likely launched by Iran&#8217;s proxy groups based in Iraq, caused &#8216;minor injuries&#8217; to several employees and &#8216;limited material damage&#8217; to the passenger building, according to Breaking the News. Earlier the same day, Kuwait&#8217;s Defence Ministry reported that the Ali al-Salem Air Base, which hosts US assets, also came under attack by ballistic missiles, all of which were successfully intercepted by Kuwaiti air defense systems.<\/p>\n<h2>Kuwait Condemns Drone Strike Amid Regional Escalation<\/h2>\n<p>The Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement, cited by the official KUNA news agency, asserting Kuwait&#8217;s right to defend itself against these acts of aggression. This condemnation came as Iran&#8217;s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for striking all Israeli and US military targets in the Middle East with &#8216;powerful blows of Iranian missiles,&#8217; following a significant joint attack on Iran by the US and Israel earlier on Saturday, as reported by Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond Kuwait, Iran confirmed targeting US assets in Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain reported a missile attack on the headquarters of the US Navy\u2019s 5th Fleet in Manama, describing it as a &#8216;treacherous attack&#8217; and a &#8216;blatant violation of the kingdom&#8217;s sovereignty.&#8217; In the UAE, at least one person was killed in Abu Dhabi after missiles launched from Iran were intercepted, and a fire broke out near a hotel on Dubai\u2019s Palm Islands. Qatar&#8217;s Defence Ministry also stated it thwarted attacks, intercepting all missiles before they reached its territory, though a long-range early warning radar was targeted.<\/p>\n<h2>Widespread Airspace Closures and Flight Disruptions<\/h2>\n<p>The immediate consequence of these escalating hostilities was a severe disruption to air travel across the Middle East. Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE all temporarily closed their airspace, leading to mass flight cancellations. Dubai International Airport, one of the world&#8217;s busiest hubs for international travel, along with Dubai World Central \u2013 Al Maktoum International, suspended all flight operations until further notice, as reported by USA Today and PBS NewsHour.<\/p>\n<p>Flight maps on Saturday showed airspace over Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, and Bahrain virtually empty. Airlines, including Emirates, Etihad Airways, Delta, United Airlines, and Turkish Airlines, announced extensive cancellations and diversions. Emirates temporarily suspended operations to and from Dubai, while Etihad Airways canceled all flights until March 1. The U.S. State Department established a task force to assist US citizens, and the Israeli National Security Council urged increased precaution for its citizens abroad.<\/p>\n<h2>Iran&#8217;s Retaliation Follows US-Israeli Strikes<\/h2>\n<p>The wave of Iranian attacks was a direct retaliation for a joint US-Israeli offensive against Iran, which began hours earlier on Saturday morning. Iran\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Ghanbari told Al Jazeera that Iran had the right to defend itself. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi conveyed to the United Nations Security Council that Iran would &#8216;continue to exercise its right of self-defence decisively and without hesitation until the aggression ceases fully and unequivocally.&#8217; The only Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country not struck by Iran was Oman, which has historically served as a mediator in regional diplomatic efforts, including recent indirect talks between Iran and the US.<\/p>\n<p><em>The drone strike on Kuwait International Airport, coupled with broader regional attacks and subsequent airspace closures, underscores the immediate and far-reaching impact of escalating military tensions on civilian infrastructure and international travel in the Middle East.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kuwait International Airport sustained minor injuries and material damage from a drone strike Saturday, amidst Iran&#8217;s regional retaliation. It triggered widespread airspace closures and flight cancellations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow5Nm1DA:productID":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28582,18],"tags":[49983,1149,49982,49981,1282,347,49984],"class_list":["post-44289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east","category-military","tag-air-travel-disruption","tag-drone-attack","tag-iran-retaliation","tag-kuwait-airport","tag-middle-east-conflict","tag-regional-security","tag-us-assets"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kuwait-airport-terminal-damage.jpg","_embedded":{"wp:featuredmedia":[{"id":-1,"source_url":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kuwait-airport-terminal-damage.jpg","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}