Video footage verified by The New York Times showed fire inside Kuwait’s international airport. The attack was part of one of the biggest assaults on a Gulf nation since the U.S.-Iran cease-fire was announced in April. Share full articleVideoDamage at Kuwait International Airport on Wednesday. See more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra más de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de búsqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google Latest PinnedUpdated June 3, 2026, 12:15 p.m. ETLeo SandsVivian NereimYan Zhuang and Max Bearak Here’s the latest.Iran fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Kuwait early Wednesday, including a strike that killed a civilian and injured scores of others at the country’s international airport, the Kuwaiti authorities said. The strike left one of the airport’s terminals ablaze and with a gaping hole in its roof. The barrage was one of the biggest attacks on a Gulf nation since the U.S.-Iran cease-fire took effect in April, and it showed that Iran still had the ability to inflict damage its neighbors. Tehran has attacked major energy exporters and trade hubs since the beginning of the war to punish U.S. allies and increase economic pressure on the Trump administration. Negotiations aimed at reopening the vital shipping lanes of the Strait of Hormuz have dragged on without a resolution. The fresh hostilities came as President Trump said in an interview with The New York Post published Wednesday that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public for months, was involved in the negotiations to end the war. Mr. Trump said he hoped to meet with him. The United States and Iran have launched a series of attacks in recent days even though both sides claim a cease-fire remains in effect. The U.S. military has described its actions as self-defense, while Iran has said it is retaliating for American attacks. The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that Iran had also launched missiles and drones at Bahrain on Wednesday, as well as at civilian mariners in nearby waters. Those attacks did not hit their targets, the military said. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had targeted the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and an American vessel it identified as the Panaya. Kuwaiti authorities said on Wednesday that the attack on Kuwait International Airport’s Terminal 1 had killed an Indian resident of the country and wounded at least 63 other people. The attack included 13 ballistic missiles and 17 drones, they said. In recent years, U.S. forces have operated out of a site within that airport complex, but it was unclear if they are still doing so or if that site was the intended target. Satellite imagery provided by Airbus DS from Wednesday morning showed damage to the roof of a terminal. That corresponded with the damage seen in video footage verified by The New York Times showing flames and dense smoke inside the terminal, with people rushing away from the large hole in the roof. By early afternoon local time, some flights had resumed from a different terminal. U.S.-Israel relations: Mr. Trump told The Post that he had used expletives in a recent phone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel but said they have a broadly positive relationship. In a separate interview, Mr. Netanyahu acknowledged what he described as “tactical disagreements” with the president but said the two men “always find a way to work them out.” Lebanon fighting: Israel continued to target the Iranian-backed, Lebanese group Hezbollah on Wednesday, killing at least six people in strikes near the southern city of Tyre, Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported. The fighting came even as Israeli and Lebanese officials were scheduled to meet in Washington on Wednesday for another round of U.S.-mediated talks. Market reaction: Oil prices rose on Wednesday as military strikes in the Middle East cast doubt on efforts by Iran and the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil and gas shipping route. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress that sanctions relief for Iran would be part of talks over the country's nuclear program and that any end to U.S. sanctions would be “conditions-based.” Critics of President Barack Obama’s earlier nuclear agreement with Iran denounced the terms because they allowed for the lifting some sanctions. Rubio said the Trump administration would continue to press Iran to address the issue of “disposition” of its highly enriched uranium, without providing any details about what he meant by “disposition.” On a recent trip to India, Rubio had said that nuclear talks would come after an initial cease-fire agreement, which is still being negotiated. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress that the U.S. military operation against Iran “has concluded,” reiterating the message the Trump administration has been trying to push on the war, despite continuing attacks by both sides. Rubio said any American strikes on Iran now were “completely defensive in nature” and intended to protect civilian cargo ships trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Wednesday that he had had “tactical disagreements” with President Trump, after the president confirmed that he had used expletives in a Monday call with Netanyahu. Trump had described the tense call, owing to his frustration over Israel’s fighting in Lebanon, in an interview with the New York Post earlier on Wednesday. Hours later, Mr. Netanyahu declined to comment on the content of the conversation in an interview with CNBC, but said the two leaders had a habit of resolving their differences. “We can disagree in the morning, and by the afternoon, we have common action,” he said. Trump confirms he called Netanyahu ‘crazy’ in a phone call.ImagePresident Trump at the White House last week.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesPresident Trump offered a glimpse into his private conversations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, suggesting that the two men had a broadly positive rapport but that recent disagreements had prompted the president to call the Israeli leader “crazy.” “We’ve worked very well together,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with The New York Post, summarizing their working relationship as close and constructive. But Mr. Trump confirmed that he had repeatedly used expletives to convey his frustration on a recent phone call with Mr. Netanyahu over Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon when asked about an Axios report on the conversation between the two men. “I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon,” he said, referring to the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon. Mr. Trump made his comments after reports of a growing split between the two leaders as the war with Iran, which began with joint U.S.-Israeli attacks, drags on. The Trump administration has excluded Israel from negotiations to end the conflict and the president has publicly urged Israel to stop fighting with Hezbollah. In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday published after Mr. Trump made his remarks, Mr. Netanyahu acknowledged what he described as “tactical disagreements” with the president but declined to share details. “We always find a way to work them out,” he said. In the New York Post interview, Mr. Trump also said that he hoped to eventually meet with Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. “We probably will meet at some point,” he said. The Iranian authorities did not comment, and it was unclear whether Ayatollah Khamenei, who is believed to have been injured in the U.S.-Israeli strikes that began the war, would be willing to meet with Mr. Trump. The president said that he did not know the extent of the injuries sustained by the supreme leader, who has not been seen in public for months. “If you believe the stories, he’s missing a lot of different parts,” said Mr. Trump. Speaking more broadly about the state of negotiations to end the war, Mr. Trump suggested that he was not in a rush to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for oil and gas that has remained largely choked by Iran since the beginning of the war. When asked whether the strait would still be blocked by Labor Day on Sept. 7., Mr. Trump replied: “I don’t know.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress that the Israel-Lebanon conflict was “complex” and rooted in a decades-old history going back to the last century, but that the United States remained invested in diplomacy to try to bring about a settlement. He said that the Israeli military was continuing to strike in southern Lebanon when it saw activity by Hezbollah, and was increasingly taking Lebanese territory to ensure the Iranian-backed militia has fewer missile launch sites in the region. The attack on Kuwait’s airport further upends travel in the Middle East.ImageTerminal 1 at Kuwait International Airport on Monday. Kuwait’s army said the terminal was damaged in an Iranian attack early Wednesday.Credit...Yasser Al-Zayyat/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIranian forces targeted Kuwait’s primary airport with a wave of attack drones that killed one person and injured more than 60 others, including passengers and airport workers, Kuwaiti authorities said on Wednesday. The attack also closed a terminal that had only just reopened, the latest example of the war in the Middle East upending aviation. Kuwait’s military said Iranian drones inflicted material damage to Terminal 1 of the Kuwait International Airport complex, which has recently hosted the Kuwaiti and U.S. air forces as well as being a civilian transportation hub. In a statement on Wednesday, Kuwaiti health officials said the Iranian attack had turned the airport into a major emergency scene, with over 25 ambulances attending and doctors performing at least seven emergency surgeries. Video footage verified by The New York Times showed the interior of the terminal building filling with flames and smoke. The terminal, which was hit at the end of the busy travel period over Eid al-Adha, had reopened to travelers on Monday after being closed for months because of the conflict. On Wednesday, officials said that a different terminal would reopen to passengers.
Original Source: NYTimes
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