ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A power generation and water desalination plant in Kuwait was damaged in an Iranian attack, the country's electricity ministry reported Friday, hours after Kuwait's defense ministry said it was responding to "hostile missile and drone attacks" from Iran.
“As a result of the sinful Iranian aggression targeting the State of Kuwait, one of the power and water desalination plants was subjected to an attack,” the electricity ministry said in a statement, adding that the assault “inflicted damage on the plant's facilities” and led to the outbreak of a fire that damaged “a large number of electricity generation units.”
The attack “prompted the activation of emergency plans and immediate action to deal with the incident to mitigate its effects and maintain the stability of the electrical grid,” the statement noted, further urging citizens to “rationalize consumption” to “overcome this phase” and “support the rehabilitation of the damaged facilities as quickly as possible.”
Of note, temperatures in Kuwait soar near 50 degrees Celsius in the summer, and any power disruption could have severe consequences for a population reliant on air conditioning.
Earlier in the day, Kuwaiti armed forces said the country's air defenses were “engaging hostile missile and drone attacks, following the sinful Iranian aggression,” and on Thursday, the Kuwaiti defense ministry stated that it had intercepted a total of “32 hostile drones within Kuwaiti airspace” from Iran.
For its part, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Friday that it had launched a “swift drone and missile strike” on Kuwait, claiming to have destroyed “HIMARS launchers and missiles” as well as “several deployment sites of American forces” and the “mercenaries” of the US and Israel, adding that “a large number” of those forces were killed.
In a separate statement, the IRGC said it had targeted US “deployment sites of forces and logistical support centers” in Kuwait using one-way drones, framing the attacks as a response to deadly American strikes on the country's “urban and civilian infrastructure” on Friday.
The escalation comes as at least five bridges were struck by US forces in southern Iran on Friday, killing at least seven people, Iranian state and semi-official media reported, as the US military launched its sixth consecutive night of strikes against targets in the country. Strikes also expanded to areas near the capital Tehran.
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