WASHINGTON — Iran’s ballistic missile and drone attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain early on Wednesday marked the culmination of some of the fiercest back-and-forth fighting in the Gulf since President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran in April.

While the US military said the barrages on both countries were thwarted, at least some of the 13 Iranian ballistic missiles and 17 drones fired into Kuwait hit key civil infrastructure, including the small country’s main international airport, the nation’s armed forces said Wednesday. The Iranian strikes killed an Indian national and left more than 63 other people injured.

Iran’s missile barrages on Kuwait and Bahrain follow a familiar pattern of targeting countries that host American military bases in response to US and Israeli attacks on its territory. 

But the strikes signaled a new turn in recent weeks’ tit-for-tat retaliations — which US military officials continue to downplay as below the threshold of overturning the current ceasefire — by showing that Iran is willing to inflict civilian casualties in the Gulf in lateral retaliation for US strikes on its military fortifications near the Strait of Hormuz.