Saudi Arabia intercepts missiles as Aramco building in Riyadh is damaged, and other Mideast news
Saudi Arabia intercepted two ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles targeting the capital and other regions on Sunday, with falling debris damaging a building belonging to the state-owned oil giant Aramco in Riyadh’s financial district.
Saudi air defenses intercepted four missiles targeting the kingdom on Sunday, but falling debris struck a building belonging to the state-owned oil giant Aramco in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District. The Saudi Energy Ministry reported no casualties at the facility, and witnesses described a loud explosion early in the morning.
The Saudi-led coalition accused the Iran-backed Houthis of launching the weapons. In response, the Houthis’ military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, claimed they had hit the financial district and other targets, citing recent airstrikes in Yemen that killed dozens of people.
They had hit Riyadh’s financial district and other targets in response to attacks in recent days on a village and a market in Yemen, which he said left dozens dead or wounded and blamed on Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis’ health authorities in Yemen reported that airstrikes on the village of al-Shariya, east of Sanaa, killed at least 44 people, including 21 children and 10 women. Rescue teams were still searching the area for missing people, suggesting the death toll could rise.
Separately, the United Arab Emirates National Guard rescued 22 crew members from a cargo ship that caught fire in the Sea of Oman. All the rescued crew members, of Arab nationalities, were in stable condition, but the National Guard did not identify the vessel or the cause of the fire.
Israel's political shift
In Israel, President Isaac Herzog formally gave opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form a new government. This is a significant step in Eisenkot’s effort to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after elections in a deeply divided country.
While complex coalition negotiations lie ahead, the move comes more than a year after a ceasefire deal was reached between Israel and Hamas, yet Israel continues to launch near-daily strikes on the enclave. On Sunday, an Israeli strike killed two Palestinians in Muwasi, a tent camp on Gaza’s coast.
A separate incident in central Gaza saw a large sandstone slab collapse onto makeshift tents housing displaced Palestinians, killing at least four people, including three children. Civil defense workers and residents were searching through the rubble using their bare hands, as torrential rains over the past few days are believed to have contributed to the collapse.
Escalation in the region
The strategic Khor Mor gas field in Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdish region was targeted by a drone attack late Sunday, causing widespread power outages. The attack took the facility offline, though no casualties were reported and no group immediately claimed responsibility.
Residents on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz reported hearing several explosions late Sunday evening, as similar reports have been made in previous days without official confirmation. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, before heading to a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Paris, said the U.S. would make defensive actions if there is a clear and present threat to shipping or forces in the region.
If there’s a clear and present threat to shipping or to our forces in the region, we have a right to defend ourselves.
Iran hanged three men in Karaj on Sunday who were convicted of armed riot, damage to public property, and cooperation with Israel and the United States during nationwide anti-government protests. The protests, some of the largest against the Islamic Republic’s government, were largely stamped out when the United States and Israel went to war with Iran in February.
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