Two suspected Iranian drones hit the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, causing a small fire overnight into Tuesday.
The incident is the latest incident regarding an Iranian retaliatory attack in the region against U.S. bases and personnel.
“The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh was subjected to an attack by two drones according to initial estimates, resulting in a limited fire and minor material damage to the building,” a spokesperson from the Saudi Ministry of Defense said.
It’s unclear if there were any casualties. The ministry said earlier on Monday that five hostile drones were intercepted near Prince Sultan Air Base.
Shortly after, the U.S. mission to Saudi Arabia issued an alert for Americans to shelter in place “immediately.”
The United States, in conjunction with Israel, launched a massive military operation targeting Iran’s senior leaders, its navy, and their missile arsenal and production facilities, among several other military targets on Saturday.
Iran has responded by firing countless missiles and drones at Israel and U.S. assets and bases all across the region, including in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
Six U.S. service members have been killed in the war so far, all of whom were killed in the same attack in Kuwait, according to CNN. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the strike that killed the service members hit a “tactical operation center that was fortified.”
Senior U.S. officials have said to expect additional American casualties.
Iranian one-way attack drones are intentionally cheaply made, and the U.S. is forced to use much more expensive systems to intercept them.
The U.S. also used low-cost attack drones modeled after the Iranian Shahed drones in its initial attacks of the war. It was the first time the U.S. used them in combat.
The proliferation and evolution of drone technology have been on display in the Russia-Ukraine war, which has gone on for more than four years now. Russia and Iran have strengthened their defense relationship over the course of the war, and Iran provided Russia with thousands of Shahed drones and even helped them set up domestic manufacturing plants for the attack drones.
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Drones have already demonstrated to be a vulnerability for American security in the Middle East.
Three service members were killed, and more than 40 were injured at Tower 22, a small U.S. base in Jordan, in January 2024 in a drone attack carried out by Iranian-backed militias. U.S. forces carried out significant retaliatory strikes in retaliation for the deadly attack.
