The United States embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadi suffered a drone strike, the Saudi Defence Ministry’s press service reported early in the day on March 3.
According to the ministry’s first estimates, two drones hit the building and a small fire broke out at the site.
“The building sustained minor damage,” the defence ministry spokesman added.
Subsequently, department spokesman Turki al-Maliki reported intercepting eight drones near Riyadh and al-Harj.
The US embassy in Saudi Arabia said its diplomatic mission in the country would not operate on Tuesday. All scheduled and emergency appointments have been cancelled, and a self-exclusion notice is in effect for diplomatic staff in the cities of Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran at their place of residence. The embassy has issued the same call to US citizens in the country.
“Avoid the embassy in further communications due to the attack on the facility. We continue to restrict non-essential travel to any military installations in the region,” the press office said.
The day before, the US State Department urged its fellow citizens to leave the Middle East for security reasons.
The joint operation between the United States and Israel in the first wave of strikes on 28 February resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a significant number of other senior Iranian regime officials.
In response, Iran’s military has attacked not only Israel or US military installations in the region with missiles and drones, but also many of its regional neighbours, which Tehran considers allies of the United States. Explosions have been reported in Bahrain, UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Not only military but also civilian targets like apartment blocks, hotels or airports were hit. Also the militaries of European countries present in the Middle East were attacked.