Two foreign workers — one Indian, one Bangladeshi — were killed when a projectile struck a residential area in Al-Kharj, a city south of Riyadh that hosts the Prince Sultan Air Base, one of the largest military installations in the kingdom. Twelve others sustained injuries in the Sunday incident, according to a statement posted on X by the Saudi Civil Defense authority.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards had earlier claimed responsibility for targeting radar systems at multiple locations across Saudi Arabia, identifying Al-Kharj among them. The admission adds to mounting evidence that Tehran’s retaliatory campaign has extended well beyond U.S. military assets in the Gulf, repeatedly endangering civilian populations across the region.
The fatalities bring further weight to a conflict that has already claimed lives on Saudi soil. On March 8, U.S. Central Command confirmed that an American soldier wounded during an attack in the kingdom on March 1 had died from those injuries, marking the first known U.S. military death linked to Iranian strikes in Saudi territory.
Since the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28, Iranian drones and missiles have hit targets in all six Gulf Cooperation Council nations. Saudi Arabia — which had publicly refused to allow its airspace or bases to be used for attacks on Iran — found itself under fire nonetheless, with drones hitting the Ras Tanura oil facility and the U.S. Embassy compound in Riyadh during the opening days of the conflict.
Riyadh has since abandoned its earlier posture of neutrality, with the foreign ministry condemning Iranian strikes on the kingdom and fellow Gulf states while notably declining to criticize the U.S. and Israeli operations in Iran. Saudi officials have warned Tehran through diplomatic back channels that continued attacks could compel a military response, though the kingdom has so far refrained from direct retaliation amid fears that escalation could draw Yemen’s Houthis back into active hostilities against Saudi targets.
