During the morning of June 3, 2026, a 50 or 55-year-old Indian man named Mansour (Manzoor) Ahmed was killed and 63 others were injured during an alleged Iranian drone attack involving interceptions by the Kuwait Armed Forces and U.S. military on Kuwait, including Kuwait International Airport. 35-year-old Mamdouh Abdul-Ali Muhammad, Ayed al-Otaibi, Fahad Bouhamad and Fahad’s brother, Ahmed Bouhamad were identified as injured victims of the strike.
On the afternoon of June 3, the Kuwait Army General Staff Headquarters published a statement (via Twitter/X) by the official spokesman of Kuwait’s Ministry of Defense, Colonel Saud Abdulaziz Al-Atwan, announcing that: “The armed forces have monitored and dealt with (13) hostile ballistic missiles within Kuwaiti airspace since dawn today, and they were intercepted over several residential areas, resulting in the fall of some debris. The armed forces also monitored and dealt with (17) hostile drones. This Iranian criminal aggression resulted in the targeting of civilian and vital facilities, including Kuwait International Airport, leading to the death of an Indian expatriate and injuries to several individuals, in addition to significant material damage.” According to the BBC, “the US said it had launched “self-defence” strikes on Iran, and shot down or intercepted Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait and Bahrain.”
In another statement, Colonel Al-Atwan specified that a number of hostile drones hit Terminal 1 (T1) at Kuwait International Airport as a result of the Iranian aggression, adding that the attack had caused significant material damage to the terminal and injured several people, who received the necessary medical care. An additional Twitter/X post by Kuwait Army General Staff Headquarters showed photos of the Minister of Defense, Sheikh Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, and several other Kuwaiti officials visiting “those injured in the attacks on civilian and vital facilities, including Kuwait International Airport, early this morning, to check on their health and monitor the medical care they are receiving.”
According to a Twitter/X post by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), citing Kuwait’s Ministry of Health, “63 injured individuals were received as a result of the heinous Iranian attack. They were distributed among Farwaniya, Jaber, Jahra, Adan, Amiri, Sabah, and Mubarak Al-Kabeer hospitals according to the approved national emergency plans. Seven cases underwent major emergency surgeries, in addition to a number of minor surgical procedures performed to address various injuries.” From the statement, it is unclear if this casualty figure accounts for multiple strikes or if it specifically applies to the airport attack; however, the BBC also reported that “one person has been killed and more than 60 injured in Iranian drone strikes on Kuwait’s international airport,” citing local officials.
That day, several sources, including the BBC, reported that Iran had denied responsibility for the airport strike. According to ‘Ramallah News’ on Facebook, “The Iranian Revolutionary Guard claims: We did not bomb Kuwait International Airport, and the destruction of the airport’s passenger terminal was caused by a malfunction in the American Patriot missile systems.” TRT World also reported the IRGC’s claims, but stated “Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain were carried out in self-defence after the US targeted an Iranian oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and a telecommunications tower on Qeshm Island. The Ministry said both countries bore “direct and clear responsibility” for the attacks, alleging their territory and facilities had been used to support US attacks.” On the Fars News Agency platform, which is closely associated with the IRGC, @war_news posted a video of dark smoke rising from the terminal with the caption: “Kuwait Airport after Iran attack.”
According to the BBC, “US Central Command (Centcom) said [the IRGC’s claim that the incident was caused by a U.S. Patriot missile malfunction] was false and claimed Iran struck the airport in a “deliberate, calculated and unjustified attack.” None of the other available sources attributed the strike to U.S. forces.
Following the attack, several sources circulated an image, purportedly of an Iranian Mado MD550 drone engine, attributed to the airport strike. Facebook accounts ‘urgent’ and ‘Yazeed Alsaeed’ shared a photo of a man in a camouflage uniform – possibly a member of Kuwaiti armed forces – carrying the mangled device, and reported that “Kuwait has located the engine of the Iranian drone that crashed at Kuwait International Airport. The image shows a Mado MD550 engine. The MD550 is a 50-horsepower, four-cylinder, twin-acting gasoline piston engine manufactured in Iran by the Mado company. It is a reverse-engineered version of the German Limbach L550E engine, widely known as the primary engine used in Iran’s Shahed-136 attack drone.”
In the early hours of June 4, KUNA shared a video attributed to Kuwait’s General Civil Aviation Authority showing “the first moments of the Iranian brutal attack with hostile drones on the Passenger Building (T1) at Kuwait International Airport,” noting that the strike(s) “caused loss of lives, severe human injuries, and significant material damage.” The video appears to include footage from various locations capturing the same strike, with some of the clips showing the exterior of the airport clearly being struck by a drone-shaped projectile and others showing an explosion inside the airport. The video also includes several photographs taken inside the airport in the aftermath of the strike, showing severe damage to passenger areas. One of the interior clips shows several people present in the terminal when the explosion occurs, with some of them running away and others disappearing from view due to the large burst of flames, smoke and debris. In an earlier Twitter/X post, KUNA published a series of photos showing Kuwait’s prime minister, Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, touring the damaged airport with his entourage. The photos provide further detail of the damage incurred, with shops, cafes, escalators and other facilities visibly shattered and charred.
Also on June 4, Gulf 24 news outlet shed light on some of the victims of the airport attack. It began by describing the plight of two of the injured: “The first was the young Kuwaiti man, Ayed al-Otaibi, and the second was the Egyptian resident, Mamdouh Abdel-Ali Mohamed.” According to the article, “both were going about their lives normally before the explosion struck. Mamdouh Abdel-Ali, an Egyptian worker, was performing his duties in the terminal when shrapnel pierced his left arm, resulting in its complete amputation […] As for Ayed al-Otaibi, his story dominated social media in the Gulf after he lost his left leg in the direct bombing, becoming a symbol of sacrifice and resilience in the face of this brutal attack.” Gulf 24 further stated that “Medical reports from Farwaniya Hospital revealed the scale of the disaster, with the hospital alone receiving 38 of the more than 63 injured in the attack. According to the reports, injuries were sustained by workers and travelers of seven different nationalities (Kuwait, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and others). Among the injured were 12 Kuwaiti citizens, while the remaining injuries were distributed among workers and residents who were present at the airport at the time of the attack.” Finally, the outlet reported that “official records indicate that the injuries were not limited to minor wounds, but were mostly severe and deep. They ranged from lacerations caused by flying glass to direct head and limb injuries from shrapnel, in addition to dozens of cases of suffocation due to inhaling the thick smoke that blanketed the airport terminals after the explosion.”
Facebook account ‘Union’ reported Ayed and Mamdouh’s severe injuries, and posted a photo of Ayed, a young man with a mustache dressed in a civil aviation uniform and noted that “he is known for his fondness for Egypt and his warm smile.” Another account called ‘Civil Aviation” referred to Ayed as a “captain,” while Almashhad News described him as “an employee in the Customs Department at Kuwait International Airport.”
In a later post, ‘Union’ said “Mamdouh, 35, who has lived in Kuwait since 2017 with his brother and works for a telecommunications company at the airport during the night shift, recounted the details of his injury in the Iranian attack. In an interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas, he said: “On the day of the attack, work started normally before everything changed in a matter of seconds. Around 7:00 a.m., we heard two consecutive sirens, and then we felt the force of the impact without any warning. The doors were locked, so I tried to get out as quickly as possible and away from the area.” According to his account published by Al-Qabas, amidst the confusion and fear that followed the attack, Mamdouh was hit by shrapnel in his arm, but he didn’t initially realize he had been injured. He added: “I didn’t feel any pain at the time, I was just running trying to survive. Afterwards I discovered that I had been hit by shrapnel and was bleeding without feeling anything.” The post included a photo of Mahmoud in a hospital bed with several visitors in the room.
According to Misr Press, Mamdouh explained that “he was taken to the hospital and underwent three surgeries, and is still receiving treatment, confirming that his health is steadily improving. He also expressed his gratitude to a Kuwaiti citizen who supported him and checked on him during his treatment. Mamdouh denied the rumors circulating on social media about his arm being amputated. He clarified that his injury was caused by shrapnel. It’s only in the hand, and his condition is stable.”
On June 6, India’s NDTV reported that “an Indian man killed in an Iranian strike at Kuwait airport was coming to his home in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain to attend his niece’s wedding.” According to the news outlet, “Manzoor Ahmed, who worked as a tailor in Kuwait for nearly 30 years, was scheduled to board a flight from Kuwait around 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday for Mumbai, from where he was to take a train to his hometown in Ujjain. A day before boarding the flight, he had spoken to his 18-year-old son Anas Ahmed and asked him to come to pick him up from the railway station.” According to The Hindu, “Mr. Ahmed’s elderly mother said that she had only spoken to her son on Tuesday (June 2, 2026) night and that he was excited about coming home.” The NDTV article noted, “unaware that it would be their last conversation, Anas and his family members had prepared to welcome Manzoor, who was returning to India after October last year, with garlands. On Wednesday afternoon, however, they were told that Manzoor was killed in the drone strike that also left 13 other Indian nationals injured.” Emphasizing the impact of Mansour’s loss, NDTV noted that “he is survived by his wife, son, two daughters and aged mother.” “We are devastated. He was the sole breadwinner of the family. Everything happened so suddenly,” his brother-in-law Mohammed Ismail told the news agency PTI. Following Mansour’s death, several accounts shared a black and white photo of the middle-aged man with short hair and a trimmed mustache.
The Indian Embassy in Kuwait also announced that its ambassador had “visited the Central Mortuary of Kuwait today where the mortal remains of the Indian national who lost his life this morning during the attack on the Kuwait International Airport, were brought.” It further stated that the ambassador had visited other Indian nationals who had been injured and admitted to the hospital as a result of the strike.
Kuwait Today posted a wish for the speedy recovery for brothers Ahmed and Fahad Bouhamad who were injured in the “Iranian attack” and included images of two men in hospital beds, one with an oxygen mask and the other with a neck brace giving the thumbs up. A video from @DailyArabi showed the two brothers in the hospital being visited by “Stars from the arts, media, and sports in Kuwait”
While sources consistently mentioned Iran’s role in the attack, Iran officially denied their participation and instead blamed the U.S. military. Although Iran was the only source to directly blame the civilian harm on a U.S. Patriot missile, both the U.S. military and Kuwait Army acknowledged their involvement in attempts to intercept the Iranian attack, therefore the strike status has been graded as “contested”.