Kuwait third US ally attacked in two days; Iranian military toll hits 13 this week

Iran fired at Kuwait on Thursday as part of its retaliation for US bombardments earlier in the week. Sirens sounded in Kuwait early on Thursday, where air defences intercepted missiles and drones during a "blatant Iranian aggression," the Kuwaiti defence ministry said on X.

It came after US allies Bahrain and Jordan said their air defence systems also intercepted several Iranian air attacks on Wednesday.

Six more personnel killed


Tehran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday the deaths of six more military personnel from US strikes this week, bringing the military death toll to at least 13. In the latest report on military deaths, Tasnim said six members of the regular military, including three pilots, had been killed in southern Iran.

It gave no additional detail on the location. Tasnim had earlier reported that Tuesday's strikes had killed three members of the paramilitary Basij on Lavan Island in the Gulf, with their funeral taking place in southern Iran on Wednesday.

The strikes also killed four members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Aerospace Force in western Iran, according to a statement by the guards published on Wednesday.

Commerce secretary 'sorry'

Meanwhule, US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick apologised on Thursday for stating that no Americans had died in the Iran war, acknowledging that 18 service members have been killed.

"I misspoke. Eighteen members of our military have died, and to those families my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss. I was thinking about the Venezuelan military operation where no service members died," the commerce secretary said in a post on X.

Lutnick made the comments during an interview with CNBC on Wednesday in which Venezuela did not come up.

"I think the way the president is playing Iran... There haven't been American deaths. It's really just an economic choke-out, which the administration is now executing more broadly, and I think it'll be very effective," Lutnick told CNBC.

Moments before Lutnick's apology, Trump defended the commerce secretary on Truth Social.

"Secretary Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!" Trump wrote.