KUWAIT CITY, June 6 -- Before most of the capital was awake, the sharp crack of intercepts cut across residential neighborhoods. By the time Kuwait's Defense Ministry confirmed the engagement, debris from seven ballistic missiles had already come to rest in populated areas - a new measure of how close the Iran-Gulf conflict is pressing against civilian life.

Brigadier General Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, the ministry's official spokesman, announced on Saturday that Kuwaiti armed forces detected and engaged seven hostile ballistic missiles in the country's airspace during the pre-dawn hours. The projectiles were intercepted over several residential areas, he said, sending fragments to the ground below. Authorities confirmed material damage b...