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Iran launched a deadly wave of missile and drone attacks across the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, striking Kuwait’s international airport and killing one person.

Getting into it: The dawn assault on Kuwait killed an Indian national and injured 63 others, including airport workers and passengers, while causing severe damage to Terminal 1 at Kuwait International Airport and briefly grounding all flights. Geolocated videos showed a blazing fire inside the terminal, a destroyed roof, and people running through smoke and debris. Kuwait’s military said it intercepted 13 Iranian missiles and 17 drones since the attacks kicked off, with its defense ministry condemning the “heinous Iranian aggression” against “civilian and vital facilities.”

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Kuwait summoned Iran’s top diplomat, handed over a formal protest, and ordered two Iranian embassy staffers to leave within 24 hours over what it called a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty. India condemned the attack that killed its citizen and urged the parties to “cease such attacks,” while a chorus of Gulf and Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain, denounced the strikes. UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash called for unity, warning that “no Gulf state should be left to face these attacks alone” and that “this aggression does not just target one country, it targets us all.”

Iran’s account was totally different. In a statement, the Revolutionary Guard claimed it had struck the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait and the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain in retaliation for an American strike on Qeshm Island, a claim US Central Command denied. Yet later in the day, the IRGC also denied hitting Kuwait’s airport terminal at all, instead blaming the damage on an American-made Patriot interceptor that supposedly fell after taking out one of Iran’s incoming missiles, an accusation CENTCOM quickly rejected.

The US said it had shot down Iranian ballistic missiles aimed at Kuwait and Bahrain, downed drones launched toward civilian ships, and carried out “self-defense strikes” on an Iranian ground control station on Qeshm, while also disabling a Botswana-flagged tanker with a Hellfire missile as part of a blockade that has now stopped six vessels.

The clashes left the peace talks in limbo, with the two sides offering competing positions. Trump insisted in an interview that Iran has “already agreed they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon” and warned that if no deal is reached, “the other way is not nice,” while Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi countered that “no progress has been achieved” and warned that continued “aggression against Beirut will be the return of war.”

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