The 2026 Iranian strikes on Kuwait are a sustained campaign of Iranian ballistic missile, cruise missile and drone attacks against Kuwaiti and allied targets on Kuwaiti soil, part of the wider 2026 Iran War. The campaign opened on 28 February 2026, hours after the United States and Israel struck Iran in a surprise operation, and it has continued in waves for months since, most recently in a five-nation Gulf barrage on 12 July 2026.¹ Kuwait was targeted because it hosts three American-linked installations the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) treated as legitimate military objectives, Camp Arifjan, the forward logistics hub for US Army Central, Ali Al Salem Air Base, which also shelters Canadian and Italian units, and Camp Buehring in the country's north.² The deadliest single incident of the campaign, a drone strike on a makeshift American operations center at Port Shuaiba on 1 March, killed six US soldiers and remains the war's costliest attack on American forces in Kuwait.⁵ As of mid-July 2026 the campaign is unresolved, with strikes resuming days after a brief US-Iran ceasefire collapsed.

Iran's attacks on Kuwait trace directly to the opening strikes of the 2026 Iran War. On 27 to 28 February, American and Israeli forces launched a coordinated campaign against Iranian nuclear sites, missile forces and senior leadership, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several top commanders in the opening hours.² Within hours the IRGC widened its retaliation beyond Israel to every Gulf state hosting American forces, striking Kuwait alongside Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on the same day.⁸ Kuwaiti Emir Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah said on 9 March that his country faced an unprovoked attack from a neighbor Kuwait considered 'a friend, and to which we did not allow the use of our land, airspace, or waters for any military action against it,' a formulation meant to distance Kuwait from any coalition role while acknowledging the strikes were real.² Iran's leadership did not treat that distinction as a reason to spare Kuwaiti territory, since Camp Arifjan, Ali Al Salem and Camp Buehring host thousands of American troops regardless of Kuwait's own declared neutrality.⁷

A second, sharper phase of causation opened in July. A US-Iran ceasefire that had briefly held broke down on 8 July, and after fresh American strikes on Iranian targets the IRGC announced what it called the 'first phase of a punitive response against the American treaty-breakers,' striking Kuwait and Bahrain again on 9 July.¹⁴ Three days later, following a US strike on roughly 140 Iranian targets after an attack on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran fired on five Gulf states at once, including Kuwait, and declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, a claim American officials rejected.¹³

Iranian ballistic missiles were intercepted over Ali Al Salem Air Base on the morning of 28 February 2026, hours after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran began, with debris from the intercepts falling near the base and causing minor injuries to three Kuwaiti and coalition personnel.³ Iranian drones struck Kuwait International Airport the same day, part of a wave Bloomberg later tallied at roughly 97 missiles and 283 drones fired at Kuwait between 28 February and 1 March.³

The campaign's deadliest single strike came the following morning. At around 9am local time on 1 March, a slow, low-flying Iranian one-way attack drone evaded Kuwait's and America's layered air defenses and struck a tactical operations trailer at Port Shuaiba, an industrial port where a US logistics unit had recently relocated from the larger Camp Arifjan.⁵ Six US Army Reserve soldiers of the 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command were killed, among them Captain Cody Khork and Major Jeffrey O'Brien, and more than 30 others were seriously wounded, several with brain injuries and burns.⁴ No warning siren sounded before impact, and a subsequent CBS News investigation found the unit had been warned of specific targeting intelligence before the move.⁴ The same day, a separate Iranian drone hit the US garrison at Camp Buehring in Kuwait's north.¹

On 2 March, a Kuwait Air Force McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet mistakenly shot down three American McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle jets in a friendly-fire incident during the confused early days of the war, though all crews survived.¹ The same day, Iranian missiles struck the Camp Canada compound inside Ali Al Salem Air Base, damaging bunkers though causing no Canadian casualties, and the US embassy in Kuwait City was likely hit by a separate missile.¹ Two Kuwaiti Navy servicemen were also killed on 2 March.⁷

Satellite imagery reviewed by open-source analysts in early March showed at least six SATCOM radomes destroyed at Camp Arifjan, precisely clustered strikes analysts said were intended to degrade US Central Command's regional communications backbone rather than to cause broad damage.⁶ By 6 March, Kuwait's Ministry of Defense reported 67 of its own service members wounded cumulatively since the war began.¹ On 9 March, two Kuwaiti border guards were killed, the same day the Emir issued his public statement on the strikes.¹

Italy's detachment at Ali Al Salem was hit hardest on 15 March, when a strike destroyed an Italian MQ-9 Reaper drone and damaged two Eurofighter Typhoon fighters with shrapnel, without injuring any Italian personnel.¹

Strikes on Kuwait's energy and civilian infrastructure intensified through the rest of March. Iranian drones hit the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery on 19 and 20 March, and a joint statement condemning Iran's strikes on Gulf states was issued on 26 March by Kuwait alongside Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan.¹ A fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport caught fire after a drone strike on 24 March, and further drones on 28 March caused what Kuwaiti officials called significant damage to the airport's radar system.¹ Two Indian nationals working in Kuwait were killed on 30 March, one in a strike on a power and desalination plant and another by falling missile debris, and on 31 March an Iranian drone damaged the Kuwaiti oil tanker Al Salmi.¹

In April, an overnight drone strike on Ali Al Salem on 6 April wounded 15 American personnel and damaged a US Army Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter on the ground.¹

Attacks on Kuwait's power, water and refining infrastructure continued despite a brief ceasefire, with strikes reported on 8 and 9 April against desalination and power facilities and further hits on Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and Kuwait National Petroleum Company sites confirmed on 5 April.¹

A separate revelation reshaped understanding of the war's opening days. On 25 to 26 April, NBC News and aviation outlets reported that an Iranian Northrop F-5, a Cold War-era fighter, had exploited a roughly 120-second gap in Camp Buehring's Patriot coverage to conduct a manned bombing run against the base during the first days of the war, the first time an enemy fixed-wing aircraft is known to have struck a US military installation in years.⁹

On 1 May, six IRGC personnel aboard a rented fishing boat attempted to infiltrate Bubiyan Island in northern Kuwait, exchanging fire with Kuwaiti forces that left one Kuwaiti soldier wounded before four of the Iranians were captured and the rest fled.¹⁰ Iran's Foreign Ministry disputed Kuwait's account, calling it a maritime patrol that strayed into Kuwaiti waters because of a navigation error, a claim Kuwaiti officials rejected.¹⁰ Around the same period, Iraqi officials said Kuwait, together with Saudi Arabia, had launched covert strikes from its own territory against Iran-aligned militia positions in Iraq, a claim first reported via the Wall Street Journal that, if accurate, marks Kuwait's only confirmed offensive action of the war.¹⁵

The campaign's second-deadliest strike hit Kuwait International Airport on 3 June, when Iranian drones heavily damaged a passenger terminal, killing an Indian national and wounding 63 people, days after the airport had reopened following a months-long war closure.¹¹ US Central Command called the strike 'deliberate, calculated and unjustified,' while Iran's IRGC denied responsibility and blamed a malfunctioning Kuwaiti Patriot interceptor for the terminal damage.¹¹ Kuwait subsequently expelled two Iranian diplomats over the attack.¹²

Strikes resumed at greater intensity after the collapse of the brief US-Iran ceasefire on 8 July. On 9 July, the IRGC struck fuel storage sites and Patriot air-defense systems at Ali Al Salem and claimed renewed hits on Camp Arifjan, describing it as the first phase of a 'punitive response,' with Kuwait's Ministry of Defense reporting at least one injury.¹⁴ On 12 July, Iran fired on five Gulf states simultaneously, Kuwait among them, with the IRGC claiming it had 'completely destroyed' fuel tanks and Patriot batteries at Ali Al Salem and damaged an FPS radar system at Ahmad Al Jaber Air Base.¹³ Kuwait reported drone damage to border posts and an offshore oil drilling rig, and Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, a claim US officials disputed.¹³ The Gulf Cooperation Council responded with a joint statement condemning the 'repeated brutal Iranian attacks' on Bahrain and Kuwait as a violation of international law and UN Security Council Resolution 2817.¹⁶

Did Iran strike Camp Arifjan? Yes. Satellite imagery from early March 2026 showed at least six SATCOM radomes destroyed at Camp Arifjan, and the IRGC separately claimed renewed strikes on the base on 9 July 2026 as part of what it called a punitive response after a ceasefire collapsed.^{6 14}

How many Americans have been killed in the Kuwait strikes? At least seven US service members have been killed, the large majority in the 1 March 2026 drone strike on a tactical operations center at Port Shuaiba, which killed six soldiers of the 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, the deadliest single attack on US forces in Kuwait during the war.^{4 5}

Is Kuwait at war with Iran? Kuwait has not declared war and its Emir has said Kuwait never authorized the use of its territory for action against Iran, while continuing to defend its own bases and airspace. Reports that Kuwait struck Iran-aligned militias in Iraq from its own soil have complicated that declared neutrality.²

What happened at Kuwait International Airport? The airport was struck repeatedly, including a 28 February 2026 drone attack, a fuel tank fire on 24 March and radar damage on 28 March, before its deadliest strike on 3 June killed an Indian national and wounded 63 people just days after the airport had reopened from a war-related closure.¹¹

Is the conflict still happening? Yes, as of mid-July 2026. Strikes on Kuwait resumed on 9 and 12 July after the US-Iran ceasefire collapsed on 8 July, with the IRGC claiming fresh hits on Ali Al Salem Air Base and Ahmad Al Jaber Air Base and no separate resolution covering Kuwait in place.^{13 14}