RIYADH: Iran resumed its nightly drone campaign against Saudi Arabia on Monday, launching waves of strikes totaling about 63 hostile drones so far, the Defense Ministry said.
Ministry spokesperson Major General Turki Al-Maliki announced the attacks in a series of posts on X beginning at 2:22 a.m. local time, saying all the drones — targeting the Eastern Province and Riyadh — were intercepted and destroyed.
The strikes came hours after Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Alireza Enayati, sought to deflect blame from Tehran, sharing a notice attributed to Iran’s military command claiming that “the enemy” was deploying drones disguised as Iranian-made Shahed drones under the name “Lucas drone.”
The new barrage has raised the number of drones intercepted in the Kingdom at over 230. A tally from the Defense Ministry’s posts have also shown more than 30 missiles had been shot down.
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Iranian strikes have followed a pattern of nightly attacks interspersed with daytime lulls.
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Neighboring Gulf states have reported higher tolls — Bahrain alone said it intercepted 125 missiles and 203 drones, with the attacks killing two people there and 24 others across the region.
The UAE reported engaging 294 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,600 drones, recording six fatalities.
The Dubai Media Office said on Monday that civil defense teams have successfully contained a fire resulting from a drone impact to one of the fuel tanks in the vicinity of Dubai International Airport. Operation at the airport has been temporarily suspended.
ARAB News
