US embassy attack in Riyadh sparks fire as Saudi Arabia intercepts Iran drones
Vehicles drive along a street near the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh. PHOTO: REUTERS
An attack by two drones early Tuesday on the US embassy in Riyadh sparked a small fire, a Saudi defence ministry spokesman said in a statement, while Iran pressed on with retaliatory strikes across the Gulf. According to Reuters, there were no reported injuries, two of the people familiar with the matter said, given that the building was empty in the early morning hours.
The US and Israeli air war against Iran began with attacks against Tehran on Saturday, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and prompting Iranian retaliation against Israel and missile attacks at Arab nations with US bases across the Middle East.
"The US Embassy in Riyadh was attacked by two drones, according to initial assessments. The attack resulted in a limited fire and minor material damage to the building," the statement said.
Two witnesses told AFP they saw fire engines around the embassy.
Earlier, witnesses said they had seen smoke over the building housing the US mission and heard loud explosions in the diplomatic quarter, home to foreign embassies in the Saudi capital.
A source close to the Saudi army, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue, told AFP that Saudi air defences intercepted four drones targeting Riyadh's diplomatic quarter in the attack.
In the aftermath, the US embassy issued shelter in place notifications for Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran and limited non-essential travel to any military installations in the region.
Read: Mideast aflame as war rages
Later on Tuesday, the Saudi defence ministry said it had intercepted more than half a dozen drones near the capital Riyadh and the city of Al-Kharj.
"Eight drones were intercepted and destroyed near the cities of Riyadh and Al-Kharj," said defence ministry spokesman Major General Turki al-Malki on X.
Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom of #SaudiArabia, Major General Turki Al-Maliki: Interception and destruction of 8 drones near the cities of Riyadh and Al-Kharj.🇸🇦🇸🇦🇸🇦 https://t.co/593ACF180w
US CENTCOM has said in a post on X that American forces have destroyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities, air defences, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields.
"US forces have destroyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields during sustained operations."
U.S. forces have destroyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields during sustained operations. We will continue to take decisive action against imminent threats… pic.twitter.com/0aHEyVHf5e
The attacks in Saudi Arabia coincided with a wave of missiles and drones launched at Gulf states, with the UAE defence ministry saying it was dealing with a barrage of ballistic missiles coming from Iran.
In Qatar, the military intercepted two ballistic missiles early Tuesday morning, the country's defence ministry said in a statement.
Iran's salvos have hit ports, airports, residential buildings and hotels along with military sites across the wealthy region of oil giants.
On Monday, smoke poured out of Kuwait City's US embassy, an AFP correspondent saw.
Later, a Kuwait-based diplomat and a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the embassy had been damaged by several drones, while a second Kuwait-based diplomat said the building had been struck directly.
'Iran war won't take years'
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the US and Israel's war against Iran may take "some time", but it will not take years.
President Donald Trump initially projected the war to last four to five weeks, but added it could go on longer, and has since sought to justify a broad, open-ended war on Iran.
Netanyahu rejected the idea of the conflict lasting years, like previous wars in the region.
Read: Over 90% of global netizens condemn US-Israel aggression on Iran: survey
"I said it could be quick and decisive. It may take some time, but it's not going to take years. It's not an endless war," Netanyahu said on Fox News' "Hannity" program.
Netanyahu said the US and Israel's war against Iran was creating a scenario for the Iranian people to topple their government.
"Now, of course, it's up to the people of Iran in the final count to change the government, but we are creating - America and Israel together are creating - the conditions for them to do so," he said.
As the war entered its fourth day on Tuesday, explosions shook buildings across Tel Aviv as air defenses intercepted incoming Iranian missiles.
Israel attacked the complex that houses Iran's state broadcaster IRIB in Tehran and targeted Hezbollah militants in towns across Lebanon.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Tuesday that its naval forces had destroyed the main command building and headquarters of a US airbase in Bahrain in what it described as the 14th wave of “Operation Promise of the Truth 4”.
The IRGC said in a statement that it had launched a large-scale drone and missile attack on the base in the Sheikh Isa area early in the morning, with 20 drones and three missiles striking their intended targets.
The US State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday warned that “the hardest hits are yet to come from the US military” in the offensive against Iran.
Asked how long he expected the United States to be engaged in Iran, Rubio told reporters that he did not know, and that he did not rule out the possibility that Trump might deploy US troops to fight a ground war in the Middle East.
"We believe the objectives we have set for this mission, the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities, both launch capibilities and manufacturing can be achieved without ground forces," Rubio said.
"Right now we are not postured for ground forces. But obviously the president has those options and he is not going to rule out anything."
The US and Israeli air war against Iran began with attacks against Tehran on Saturday, which killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Retaliation from Iran and its proxy Hezbollah has dragged the wider Gulf region into the conflict, killing hundreds of civilians in Iran, Israel and Lebanon.
The US military said it had struck more than 1,250 targets in Iran and destroyed 11 Iranian ships. Six US service personnel have been killed so far, all in Iran's retaliatory attacks over the weekend on Kuwait.
Kuwait mistakenly shot down three American F-15E fighter jets during an Iranian attack, US Central Command said. All six crew members ejected and were safely recovered.
The conflict has thrown global air transport into chaos and shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world's oil trade skirts the Iranian coast, sending oil prices surging.
Major Gulf hubs, including the world's busiest international airport Dubai, which usually handles over 1,000 flights a day, remained closed for a fourth day due to the conflict. That has left tens of thousands of passengers stranded as aviation faced its biggest test since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asian airline shares extended losses on Tuesday, with carriers closely monitoring fuel price spikes and many seeing a surge in bookings as passengers switch from Middle Eastern airlines.
Global oil and gas shipping rates soared, with supertanker costs in the Middle East hitting all-time highs, after Tehran targeted ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, according to shipping data and industry sources on Tuesday.
War widens to Lebanon
Trump has said the US faced an imminent threat from Iran that justified the war, although he gave no specifics and some US lawmakers said he has shown no evidence to back that assessment.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the United States acted preemptively because it knew of close ally Israel's plan to strike Iran and knew Tehran would respond, putting US bases at risk.
"We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties," Rubio said.
In his most extensive public comments so far on the conflict, Trump on Monday said he had ordered the attack to thwart Tehran's nuclear programme and a ballistic missile program that he said was growing rapidly.
Commercial satellite imagery has captured what appears to be the first known strikes on an Iranian nuclear site since the start of the war, an independent policy institute said on Monday.
Iran has denied it is seeking nuclear weapons and said the US and Israeli assault was unprovoked, occurring as Tehran and Washington were in negotiations on a nuclear accord.
Trump withdrew from a prior international agreement curbing Iran's nuclear programme during his first term in 2018, three years after it was signed.
Trump's assault on Iran is the biggest US foreign policy gamble in decades and a major political risk for his Republican Party in this year's midterm elections, with only one in four Americans saying they support the Iran attack, according to a weekend Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Russia, China and Turkey have condemned the war.