Iran and the US trade strikes in the Persian Gulf, further testing the ceasefire

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kuwait briefly shut the country's main airport Wednesday after Iranian drones heavily damaged a terminal building, killing one person and wounding dozens — the latest salvo in a series of back-and-forth attacks by Tehran and Washington that have tested a fragile ceasefire.

The strikes came as semiofficial Iranian news agencies said the country had stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the U.S. and Israel. A regional official said Tehran wanted the truce in Lebanon enforced before returning to talks. U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations were continuing.

The talks have dragged on for weeks, and repeated exchanges of strikes in the Gulf region and Israel’s broadening war in Lebanon are further straining the efforts.

All the while, Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial artery for the world’s oil and natural gas — and the U.S. has continued its blockade of Iranian ports, ensuring that global fuel prices remain high and the effects of the conflict are felt well beyond the region.

Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi said that “a number of hostile drones” targeted a passenger building at Kuwait International Airport.

Authorities said one person was killed and 63 wounded, including passengers and workers. Health Ministry spokesman Abdullah Al Sanad said some had suffered serious injuries.

The Foreign Ministry said Kuwait reserves the right to respond to Iran and that it will “neither accept nor tolerate” the attacks.

The airport partially reopened later in the day, according to civil aviation authorities, with Kuwait Airways flights resuming from a different terminal than the one that was hit. No other flights would be operating, they said. The airport only reopened Monday after closing early in the war.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Iran fired two missiles at Kuwait that fell apart en route, and that it “downed multiple drones” targeting American forces in the country.

The military also said U.S. and Bahraini forces intercepted missiles aimed at the Gulf kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet. Bahrain’s Defense Ministry said its military intercepted and destroyed three missiles and a number of drones fired by Iran.

The U.S. military said it launched strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged that it targeted the headquarters of the 5th Fleet and U.S. military facilities in another country, but did not name Kuwait.

Both the U.S. and Iran said they were retaliating for earlier attacks or attaempted attacks.

Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S. strikes on Qeshm Island, where it said a telecommunications tower was struck, and other previous strikes. It called them “acts of aggression” that it said violated the ceasefire.

A senior Emirati diplomat called on Wednesday for “a firm, unified, and cohesive Gulf position” against Iran following the attacks.

“This aggression does not target a specific state, but rather all of us,” Anwar Gargash wrote on the X platform.

Iran’s Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to the Guard, reported that Iran’s negotiators have stopped communicating with ceasefire mediators as tensions flared in Israel’s separate but related fight against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

A regional official involved in the mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, told The Associated Press that Iran had not communicated at all on Tuesday after saying that a ceasefire needed to be enforced in Lebanon for negotiations to continue.

Trump called reports of a cessation in talks “false and erroneous.”

“The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago and today,” Trump said in a social media post. “Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ’It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal.”

Despite repeated outbreaks of violence, the declared ceasefire in Lebanon is officially in place. No side has formally withdrawn or declared the ceasefire over, but attacks continue. Israeli forces have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over a quarter of a century while Hezbollah has launched rocket and drone attacks.

As the attacks continue, Lebanon has emerged as a key sticking point in Trump’s efforts to sign a ceasefire deal with Iran.

Tehran insists that any larger potential truce in the war there must also quell the fighting in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to keep the issues separate and is under heavy domestic pressure to strike Hezbollah as he prepares for new elections this fall.

The fighting has exposed a rift between close allies Israel and the U.S., with the U.S. pushing for restraint and Israel seeking to step up the military pressure on Hezbollah.

A person familiar with the situation said Netanyahu and Trump had a “tense” conversation earlier this week. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media. The person didn’t elaborate on the details of the call.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, Sam Mednick in Jerusalem, and Aamer Madhani and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

People swim on a public beach as smoke, background, rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit the Qlaileh village, seen from the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit Burj al-Shamali village near the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A woman holds a poster of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during a pro-government gathering at Islamic Revolution Square in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People gather on paddleboards in shallow water as cargo and service vessels are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Mole people? Crocodile catchers? Mario brothers? A series of bizarre sightings of people popping in and out of New York City’s vast subterranean sewer system has the city wondering what exactly is going on, with police now probing the underground mystery.

Security cameras have recorded at least three nighttime instances where groups of people entered or exited sewer tunnels via maintenance holes on streets in Brooklyn and Queens.

In one video, taken early Friday morning in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, a group of roughly seven people were recorded popping out of a maintenance hole in the middle of an intersection, in full view of passing cars.

Some wore headlamps and carried what appeared to be shovels and other tools. One narrowly missed getting run over by a vehicle as they pulled themselves out of the ground.

In another video, a group of about seven people could be seen emerging from a maintenance hole around 2 a.m. on a quiet street in Brooklyn's Gravesend neighborhood. They made their way to a couple of parked cars and pulled out fresh clothes to change into. Police say the group entered the sewers about 11 p.m., meaning they could have been underground for three hours.

On May 5, three people dressed in waterproof hip waders and other protective gear pried open a maintenance hole cover and descended into the sewer on a street in Queens. The last person pulled the cover shut as approaching cars slowed to a stop.

Aki Jakupovic, the owner of an auto detailing shop, said his shop’s surveillance cameras recorded that group of sewer spelunkers. He said he couldn’t venture a guess as to what the people did below ground but worried they were “up to no good.”

The city Department of Environmental Protection said it inspected the sewers at both Brooklyn locations and verified the sewer infrastructure wasn’t damaged. The incident in Queens is still under investigation, the agency said.

Rob Wolejsza, the department’s spokesperson, stressed that entering the sewers is not only illegal but “extremely dangerous.”

“Sewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces,” Wolejsza said in a statement. “For these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole, or outfall.”

Last month, a woman fell into an open maintenance hole on a busy street in midtown Manhattan and died. Utility officials said the hole cover had been dislodged by a truck.

Police, meanwhile, said they don’t believe there’s any threat to public safety after conducting a thorough sweep of the areas. There have been no reports of injuries and no arrests, and the investigation is ongoing, the department said.

On Tuesday, at the busy intersection in Williamsburg where the second group was spotted, resident Anthony Purdie said he isn’t convinced it was simple curiosity that drew the group to explore the sewers in the cover of night.

“They look like they were looking for something important, like money, or for doing some type of hurting,” he said. “Ain’t no fun and games. I mean, seven grown adults going down there? Got to be something, man.”

Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

In this image from a surveillance video provided by AKI AUTO CARE, three people descend into a sewer on a street in New York, on May 5, 2026. (AKI AUTO CARE via AP)

In this image from a surveillance video provided by AKI AUTO CARE, one of three people descends into a sewer on a street in New York, on May 5, 2026. (AKI AUTO CARE via AP)