Videos show US missiles being launched from Kuwait into Iran

Kuwait, one of the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf region, hosts several US military bases. Since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, Iran has struck targets in Kuwait and other Gulf countries with missiles and drones, causing severe damage to both military sites and oil and port infrastructure. The Iranian regime says these countries are being used to launch attacks on Iranian soil. In letters sent to the United Nations on March 24, Iran’s ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani accused Kuwait of allowing “the planning, preparation, equipping and execution” of military attacks against Iran.

Kuwait has denied it. On March 9, Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, said: “We have not allowed our land, our skies, or our shores to be used for any military activity against [Iran].”

Videos show at least 13 missiles fired from Kuwaiti soil

However, on March 24, multiple videos posted on social networks showed at least 13 missiles being fired from a location inside Kuwait. Most of these videos were recorded from Umm Qasr in Iraq, a town on the border with Kuwait. The videos, filmed pointing south, showed missiles being launched from the Kuwaiti side of the border.

One of the videos, 1 minute 30 seconds long, captures an extended sequence in which 13 missiles are seen being fired. The FRANCE 24 Observers digital investigation team synchronised this video with other videos published on social media, each documenting different moments of the same incident. In the videos, the sound of the launches arrives around 15 seconds after the launches are visible.

By analysing the position of the cameras and their angle towards oil infrastructure inside Kuwaiti territory, and by estimating the distance between the cameras and the launch zone, the Observers team was able to identify a zone from which more than a dozen missiles were fired.

Based on analysis of four videos, FRANCE 24 identified the launch zone by analysing the cameras’ angles and triangulating their lines of sight. The distance to the launch site was then estimated by measuring the delay between the visible flash of the launch and the sound of the missile firing. © FRANCE 24

The missiles were fired from the Kuwaiti desert, east of the town of Abdali, in the vicinity of oil-drilling towers.

A second series of launches was recorded in the same zone on the night of March 31 to April 1. Once again, multiple videos were filmed from the Iraqi side of the border, in one case from an Iraqi tugboat moored offshore 50 km east of Umm Qasr.

FRANCE 24 geolocated a video of missile launches filmed the night of March 31 to April 1, 2026 from the Iraqi tugboat “Al Marid” (purple lines). By analysing the camera’s direction, the team identified the launch zone, which is consistent with earlier findings from March 24. © FRANCE 24

Launches identified as US-made GMLRS missiles

The US Central Command acknowledges using mobile missile launchers known as HIMARS in its operation against Iran, dubbed “Epic Fury”. CENTCOM has published images of the truck-mounted missile launchers launching attacks from deserts in the region, but has not identified the countries. Individual National Guard units, however, have posted images showing HIMARS deployed inside Kuwait. 

The high-precision platform can fire either six GMLRS missiles, with a range of 70 km, or a single ATACMS missile with a range of up to 300 km. The HIMARS is not operated by the Kuwaiti army.

Frederik Coghe, a weapons systems and ballistics expert at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, said the missiles seen in the March 24 images are consistent with the HIMARS system.

The videos and images are indeed compatible with ‘standard’ (G)MLRS missiles fired by HIMARS. A single HIMARS can fire six standard GMLRS projectiles in one sequence. The intervals between projectiles also appear to indicate a simultaneous firing sequence involving at least two HIMARS launchers. Each complete firing sequence corresponds roughly to the standard 45-second timeframe, with six to seven seconds between each projectile. 

Could these be interceptor missiles targeting enemy drones or missiles? This cannot be ruled out. However, the number of launches is very high, and there is no open-source information indicating the presence of active air defence systems in this area. Moreover, no footage appears to show any actual interception.

The March 24 and March 31 missile launches were in a zone about 55 km north-west of Camp Buehring, a US military base in Kuwait. During the Iran war, the camp has served as a base for the 42nd Infantry Division of the US Army National Guard, from New York State. A HIMARS-equipped unit from the Wisconsin National Guard is currently operating in Kuwait, and other National Guard units have previously used HIMARS at Camp Buehring.  

FRANCE 24 contacted both the Kuwaiti authorities and the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). Kuwaiti officials did not respond to our inquiries, while CENTCOM said it had no comment on the matter. 

March 24 missile impacts filmed in Iran

On March 24, the same day that residents of the Iraqi town of Umm Qasr filmed missiles being launched from the Kuwaiti desert, residents close to Iraq’s northern border with Iran filmed a series of explosions at an Iranian border crossing called Shalamcheh, approximately 60 km from the launch zone in Kuwait.

At least seven explosions can be seen in these videos. The intervals between the explosions in Iran match the intervals between the launches recorded in Kuwait, suggesting that the missiles fired from Kuwaiti territory landed inside Iran. A GMLRS missile travelling at a speed of Mach 2 would take approximately 90 seconds to cover the 60 km between the launch zone in Kuwait and the border crossing in Iran. Lockheed Martin, the missiles’ US-based manufacturer, says standard models have a range of 70 kilometres. 

Coghe, after analysing videos of the impacts in Shalamcheh, said the explosions are consistent with GMLRS munitions being fired from Kuwait on the same day:

It is entirely possible to fire a GMLRS missile from Kuwait to Iran. Iran is within the range of the weapon, and GMLRS missiles are less expensive than other options, such as cruise missiles and airborne bombing. GMLRS missiles involve little risk and give little reaction time to the enemy. They take little time to prepare, which is advantageous for targets identified at the last minute. 

The videos showing the impacts all appear to depict strikes on Shalamcheh. In one of the videos, we can clearly see that the number of impacts is consistent with the number of projectiles fired and the impacts observed.

Satellite images taken on March 30 show apparent damage to warehouses in Shalamcheh.

Iranian state media report missile damage at a shipyard on March 31 

Iranian state media reported that a civilian shipbuilding and repair facility near the city of Khorramshahr was hit by US missiles on the night of March 31. The site is located approximately 65 km from the launch area in Kuwait.

State media sites said the facility was hit by 44 missiles and that it was not used for military purposes. It was impossible to independently verify what the shipyard is used for or by what missiles it was targeted.

Camp Buehring, a US military base in Kuwait, is located about 55 km from the identified launch zone. The distance between the launch area and the apparently targeted sites is approximately 65 km to the Arvandan shipbuilding facility and 60 km to Shalamcheh. © FRANCE 24

FRANCE 24 contacted both the Kuwaiti authorities and United States Central Command (CENTCOM). Kuwaiti officials did not respond to our inquiries, while CENTCOM said it had no comment on the matter. 

The New York Times on March 13 identified HIMARS missile launches from Bahrain. The Bahraini government told the newspaper that Bahrain “has not participated in any offensive operations” while CENTCOM declined to comment. 

Since the beginning of the US-Israeli coalition strikes on Iran on February 28, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has targeted military sites and infrastructure across several Arab countries in the Persian Gulf region, including Kuwait. On April 1, Iran struck the Kuwaiti crude oil tanker Al-Salmi. Earlier attacks targeted a power and water desalination plant on March 30, Kuwait’s main port of Shuwaikh on March 27, and fuel storage tanks at Kuwait International Airport on March 25. 

Kuwait’s Ali Al-Salem Air Base and Camp Buehring have also been heavily targeted during these Iranian strikes.

On March 16, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran referred to these Iranian attacks as “retaliatory strikes”, provoking a reaction from Kuwait’s ambassador to the UN, Nasser Al-Hayen, who warned that portraying the attacks as retaliatory could inadvertently justify Iran’s aggression against Kuwait and other countries in the region.