Iranian drones and missiles struck Kuwait International Airport and a US military base, causing limited damage and minor injuries. The attacks are part of a broader Iranian retaliation against a joint US-Israeli offensive.
On February 23, 2026, Iranian drones and missiles struck targets in Kuwait, including Kuwait International Airport and a US military base, prompting evacuations and widespread panic. According to وكالة الأناضول (Anadolu Agency), Kuwait's Directorate General of Civil Aviation reported that the strike caused "minor injuries among workers" and "limited material damage" at the passenger terminal. Notably, Kuwaiti authorities initially refrained from officially naming the source of the drone.
The strikes on Kuwait occurred against the backdrop of a massive regional escalation. Anadolu Agency, a Turkish state-run news outlet, contextualized the event by noting it followed a joint Israeli-US offensive on Saturday morning against Iranian cities including Tehran, Isfahan, Qom, and Karaj. In retaliation, Tehran reportedly launched a "large-scale military response" targeting Israel and US bases across the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait.
While official reports emphasized minimal casualties, the narrative across "Axis of Resistance"-aligned channels highlighted significant destruction and military success. الـقـدس و فلسـطين الإخـبـاريـة 🇵🇸❤️ Chat, a channel with a pro-Hamas editorial stance, quoted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claiming that the US naval base in Kuwait was directly hit with "4 missiles and 12 drones." Iraqi channel نايا - NAYA, which maintains a strongly anti-US and anti-Israel stance, claimed the airport was knocked "out of service" and declared that "Kuwait is burning from Iranian missiles".
Audience reception in several Arabic-language chat groups reflected highly polarized regional politics, with many users celebrating the attacks on Gulf state infrastructure. In the جنين القسام تقـــاوم 🔥✊ channel, users reacted to reports of panic at the Kuwait airport with calls to "Crush them". Followers of وكالة بغداد اليوم الاخبارية mocked the airport evacuations, while commentators in the Sputnik Arabic chat justified the attacks by labeling Kuwait a "racist state against Arabs." Additional unverified reports circulated by networks like شبكة القدس الإخبارية claimed Iranian drones had also struck Dubai International Airport.
Cross-Narrative Analysis: Although the provided source material exclusively features Arabic-language channels, a distinct fracture in the regional narrative is evident. Formal news agencies focused on official state reports that minimized the damage, emphasizing "minor injuries" and limited infrastructural impact. Conversely, pro-Palestinian and Resistance-aligned channels amplified the scale of the attacks, framing them as a justified and devastating retaliation against Western hegemony and complicit Gulf states. Emotionally charged language—such as celebrating the strikes as a "modest warning" and cheering the disruption of US assets—highlights a deep-seated resentment toward the US military presence in the region.The provided source material did not contain any Hebrew-language messages, despite the prompt's instruction to conduct a comparative Hebrew-Arabic cross-narrative analysis. The analysis was therefore adapted to contrast the differing viewpoints (formal vs. 'resistance' framing) within the available Arabic sources.