Kuwait Holds American Journalist After Reporting On ‘Friendly Fire’ Shootdown Incident

Authored by Chris Hedges via Consortium News

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, a fearless Palestinian-American journalist (he’s an American-born Kuwaiti of Palestinian descent) whose writing and reports are defined by unparalleled integrity, depth and eloquence, was arrested on March 3rd in Kuwait.

He is charged with spreading false information and harming national security.

His arrest took place following his reporting of the shooting down of three U.S. fighter planes by the Kuwaiti military in an act of friendly fire during the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. Ahmed, along with other news outlets such as the BBC, published footage of a U.S. F-15 E Strike Eagle crashing in al-Jahra west of Kuwait City.

I fear Ahmed, a graduate of Columbia Journalism School who has worked for The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Al Jazeera English, Vice on HBO, The Huffington Post and appeared on numerous news outlets including the BBC and CNN, will be charged under new, draconian security laws instituted in Kuwait, which have already led to dozens of arbitrary arrests.

Kuwait has desperately tried to maintain the fiction that it did not serve as a staging area for US attacks on Iran. 

The NY Times had also confirmed this week:

The arrest of the journalist, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, which Kuwaiti authorities had yet to publicly confirm, would be one of many detentions across the Persian Gulf as governments there try to repress information about local effects of the war in Iran.

“It is understood that authorities have charged him with spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone — vague and overly broad accusations that are routinely used to silence independent journalists,” the committee said in a statement.

He had not posted online or been seen in public since early March, it said. His Twitter and Instagram accounts appeared to have been deleted.

Iran repeatedly attacked Kuwait, including strikes on Kuwait International Airport, the Ali Al Salem Air Base, the U.S. garrison at Camp Buehring and an operations center that saw six U.S. soldiers killed and dozens wounded. Iran also attacked the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery and a Kuwaiti oil tanker.

WATCH: Clear footage of a U.S. F-15E jet that was shot down over Kuwait on March 1-2 in a friendly fire incident by Kuwaiti F-18 jet. pic.twitter.com/rk1uAANWNh

— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 16, 2026

France 24 broadcast a video of HIMARS missiles allegedly being fired from Kuwait into Iran. Ahmed’s reporting also undercut the lie of Kuwaiti neutrality.

The Kuwaiti authorities will, I expect, for this reason, seek to turn Ahmed into an example for the rest of the press.