Iran launched missiles and drones at US military installations in Kuwait on Thursday, with Kuwait’s army confirming it was confronting hostile attacks and telling residents that explosions heard across the country were caused by air defence systems intercepting incoming targets. The Iran strikes on Kuwait form part of a rapidly broadening conflict that now stretches across the region.
According to Anadolu Agency, Iran’s army said the attacks were conducted early Thursday as part of the 31st phase of its Operation Saeqeh, described as retaliation for recent US strikes on Iran. Iran claimed the operation targeted satellite communications systems, equipment warehouses and fighter jet hangars at Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait.
Iranian state media outlet IRIB confirmed the strikes were aimed at US bases in Kuwait. Kuwait advised all residents to follow security and safety instructions as air defences worked to intercept the incoming targets.
Iran strikes on Kuwait part of sweeping regional assault
The scale of Iran’s operations extends well beyond Kuwait. CBS News reports that US Central Command recorded Iranian strikes at US bases across Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan. The breadth of those attacks underlines how widely the conflict has spread since US forces struck Iran on Tuesday, which Trump described to reporters as a ‘very heavy attack.’
The human and material costs are already mounting. The Defense Department’s inspector general released a report revealing equipment losses worth up to $3.7 billion, including nearly 60 aircraft, across the theatre of operations, CBS News reported. That figure illustrates the material strain the conflict is placing on US military assets in the region.
Iran had already retaliated against other US regional allies before the Kuwait strikes, targeting Jordan and Bahrain in the aftermath of Tuesday’s US attack on Iran.
Trump plays down the conflict’s duration as political pressure builds
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, President Donald Trump sought to frame the conflict as nearing its end. ‘I don’t think it will [war] be very much longer … I don’t know how much more they [Iran] can take,’ he said, adding that the US was prepared for further military operations ‘any time we want.’
Trump also addressed his motivations at a later event in the Rose Garden. ‘We’re doing that not for any other reason, or at least 99%, we’re doing it to help the Middle East, we’re doing it to help Israel, and we’re doing it to help ourselves,’ he said, referring to the Iran conflict. He added that the Republican party ‘respects the fact that we’re not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.’
Behind the scenes, the political calculus is growing more complex. Reuters reported that top aides to Trump, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are pushing to keep the Iran conflict relatively ‘quiet’ until November’s midterm elections are over. Citing four people familiar with the discussions, Reuters said the aim is to limit Republican losses from a war that is proving increasingly unpopular with the American public.
Trump said on Wednesday that he personally was not affected by the midterm elections, though he acknowledged he intends to help the Republican party.
Public opinion data points to the challenge his party faces. A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll of 1,000 respondents conducted in August found broad disapproval for Trump’s conduct of the war. ‘More than two-thirds of the survey’s 1,000 respondents disapprove of the way Trump has handled the war, and nearly as many now express disapproval in how he is handling his job overall,’ the university said.
With Iran’s Operation Saeqeh now in its 31st phase and US Central Command documenting strikes across eight countries and territories, the gap between Trump’s prediction of a short conflict and the pace of events on the ground is growing harder to ignore.
