Middle East war latest: Attack by two drones on US embassy in Saudi capital sparks ‘limited’ fire

2026-03-03 - 04:53

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. The growing war began on Saturday after joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran that Tehran said killed dozens of civilians and the country’s supreme leader. “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. 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. Gulf states under fire The attacks in Saudi 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. Israel army issues new evacuation warnings in Lebanon The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on Tuesday, including warning residents in two southern Beirut neighbourhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of an imminent operation. Israel’s military on Monday vowed to intensify its attacks on the country and make Hezbollah pay a “heavy price” after rocket and drone fire from the Iran-backed militant group. “Urgent warning to the residents of Lebanon, specifically in the villages whose names are shown,” said a statement by the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Telegram, which listed 50 locations. “For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately.” Most of the locations were across the south of Lebanon, which Israel regularly targets with the aim of hitting Hezbollah infrastructure. He told the residents of the southern Beirut neighbourhoods Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik in another evacuation warning to avoid two buildings. “You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will operate in the near future,” he said. “For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and stay away from them for a distance of no less than 300 metres (984 feet),” he added. In a later warning, he told “those in the southern suburbs of Beirut, especially in the Hadath neighbourhood” to avoid a third building. Lebanon’s government on Monday took the unprecedented step of banning Hezbollah’s military and security activity, prompting the Iran-backed group to lash out at the decision. Hezbollah is represented in both the government and parliament, and the move came hours after it announced it had launched rockets and drones towards Israel early Monday to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks. Israel bombarded Beirut’s southern suburbs and dozens of villages in south Lebanon on Monday in response. The Lebanese government said the Israeli strikes have killed at least 52 people and wounded 154.