Kuwait arrested 10 militants affiliated with the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah terror group on Wednesday, who were accused of plotting terrorist actions against vital infrastructure, the interior ministry said.

This was the second Hezbollah-affiliated cell to be arrested in Kuwait this week, as the Gulf faced daily Iranian attacks during the Middle East war, which has seen Tehran-backed groups including Hezbollah join the conflict.

“The State Security Agency has successfully thwarted a plot for a terrorist operation targeting vital installations,” the interior ministry said.

“Ten citizens, members of a terrorist group affiliated with the banned Hezbollah terrorist organization were apprehended,” it added.

The ministry shared a video of seized items including Hezbollah flags, small drones and pictures of Iran’s slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli attack.

On Monday, Kuwait’s interior ministry said it arrested 16 people — 14 Kuwaitis and two Lebanese nationals — affiliated with Hezbollah who had planned a “sabotage plot.”

The ministry said the group had sought to recruit individuals and that it seized a number of weapons, camera drones and morse code communication devices.

بيان (13) من وزارة الداخلية Advertisement if(typeof rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner != "function" || !rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner("#336x280_Middle_1")){ window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; tude.cmd.push(function() { if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rgbmedia-app") > -1){ tude.setDeviceType("mobile"); } tude.refreshAdsViaDivMappings([ { divId: '336x280_Middle_1', baseDivId: '336x280_Middle_1', } ]); }); } بسم الله الرحمن الرحيموَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لَا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ (صدق الله العظيم) بضربةٍ استباقيةٍ أخرى تتجسد بضرب الخلايا النائمة التي تسعى للإخلال بأمن البلاد….. تعلن وزارة الداخلية أن جهاز أمن… pic.twitter.com/XlhGb5jm5B — وزارة الداخلية (@Moi_kuw) March 18, 2026

بيان (13) من وزارة الداخلية

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيموَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لَا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ (صدق الله العظيم)

بضربةٍ استباقيةٍ أخرى تتجسد بضرب الخلايا النائمة التي تسعى للإخلال بأمن البلاد…..

تعلن وزارة الداخلية أن جهاز أمن… pic.twitter.com/XlhGb5jm5B

— وزارة الداخلية (@Moi_kuw) March 18, 2026

Hezbollah denied that any of its members were among the 16 arrested.

In previous years, Lebanon has faced tensions with Gulf states including Kuwait, which have expressed concern about Hezbollah’s influence on the Mediterranean country.

About one-third of Kuwait’s local population belongs to the Shia branch of Islam, as do most Iranians.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

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1 Analysis‘A deluxe war’: Why Israeli support for the battle with Iran has stayed so high

2 Ramat Gan couple in their 70s killed by Iranian cluster missile

3 Op-edRegimes are ousted from within, but the US and Israel must not let up until that happens in Iran

4 Senior UAE official says Iranian attacks will drive Gulf countries into Israeli arms

5 Israel strikes major Iranian gas field; Tehran vows to hit Gulf energy sites in kind

6 Israel says Iran’s intelligence minister Esmaeil Khatib killed in Tehran strike

7 Despite FBI warning, Iran likely can’t strike US homeland with military drones

8 Russia sharing satellite imagery and drone technology with Iran – report

2026 US-Israel war with Iran

2026 Israel-Hezbollah conflict

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