Iran Strikes Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in Widening Barrage
Iran launched attacks across the Gulf on Saturday, striking a Kuwaiti power and desalination plant and an oil facility, hitting Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa airbase, and firing a ballistic missile at a US base at al-Kharj near Riyadh — its first strike on Saudi territory in nearly three months. Kuwait International Airport suspended operations; Jordan said it intercepted four drones and ten missiles.
That Iran fired only a single missile at al-Kharj, with sirens also sounding near the Red Sea oil terminal of Yanbu, suggests calibrated pressure rather than an all-out assault on a kingdom that favours a diplomatic settlement. The repeated hits on desalination plants, which supply most of the drinking water in these desert states, have stoked water-security fears and reports of residents stockpiling bottled water. The Gulf Cooperation Council accused Tehran of targeting civilian infrastructure and of “war crimes”. Watch whether Iran makes good on its published threats against five named Gulf ports, which would pull more states directly into the war.