Iran strikes Kuwait power and desalination facilities again as Gulf civilian infrastructure becomes battleground

As seven consecutive days of US strikes on Iran continue to destroy civilian infrastructure — including railways, bridges and airports — Iran has launched its own wave of retaliatory attacks on civilian facilities in Gulf states hosting American forces.

The Kuwaiti government said Friday (local time) that Iran had struck its power generation and desalination facilities for a second consecutive day, knocking some of them offline, according to AFP, Reuters and other international news agencies.

Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity and Water said in a statement that power generation and desalination facilities — different from those hit Friday — came under hostile attack, causing fires and forcing some units to halt operations. Kuwait International Airport also suspended operations amid repeated missile and drone attack threats.

Neighboring Gulf states faced the same wave of Iranian strikes. Bahrain's military issued two air-raid warnings Friday morning, ordered residents to evacuate and intercepted multiple Iranian missiles and drones using its air defense systems before raising its combat readiness level. Jordan's military announced it had intercepted 10 Iranian missiles that entered its airspace, and Qatar also reported intercepting missiles. Unexplained explosions were reported in Saudi Arabia as well.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officially acknowledged the attacks through state-run Tasnim News, saying it had struck Kuwait's Al-Ahmadi port and a US communications center on the grounds that they were used to supply fuel to the US Navy. The IRGC also said it had targeted US military presence and support infrastructure across the region, including Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain — where US combat aircraft are stationed — along with an intelligence data center there and Al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan.

US Central Command had earlier issued a statement confirming it had struck Iran for seven consecutive days, hitting surveillance facilities, logistics infrastructure, below-ground weapons storage sites and maritime capabilities. As both sides expand their military operations beyond each other's armed forces to target civilian infrastructure, alarm is growing in the international community.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement that he was "seriously monitoring" attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and across the region, and expressed strong concerns about the risk of a full-scale war spreading through the Middle East.