Riyadh Shakes as Missile and Drone Are Downed, Flights Set to Resume

Three explosions tore across Riyadh on Sunday morning, with an AFP journalist in the city reporting the blasts just minutes after residents' phones lit up with warnings of a hostile aerial threat and instructions to get to safety. The alert came from Saudi Arabia's National Early Warning Platform, and the Civil Defence told people to follow instructions and stay off the streets.

Saudi air defences moved fast. The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthis said it intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired toward the capital, according to a post on X from coalition spokesman Major-General Turki Al Maliki. A drone was also brought down over the Riyadh region, the coalition said. By 07:15 local time, Civil Defence announced the danger had passed, urging residents to avoid gathering or filming and to call 911 in an emergency.

The airport didn't wait long to reopen. King Khalid International Airport issued a travel advisory saying operations would resume Sunday from Terminals 1 and 2, with Terminal 1 handling domestic flights and Terminal 2 taking international flights run by national carriers. The advisory followed Houthi claims that they had targeted the airport and other key installations and airports across the kingdom. Officials told passengers with confirmed bookings to check with their airlines before showing up.

The strikes land against a much bigger backdrop. The United States is preparing for possible renewed military action against Iran, with The Wall Street Journal reporting sailors loading munitions and readying aircraft aboard warships, including vessels in the USS George Washington carrier strike group. Reports from Axios, CNN and NBC News say US intelligence warns that Iranian plots targeting Americans have reached advanced stages, and President Donald Trump has openly floated another operation against Tehran.

Washington has meanwhile pulled back parts of its diplomatic and military footprint across the region, while Israel has reportedly pushed for faster action against Iran. A diplomatic door is still cracked open: Iran says it's willing to resume negotiations under a Pakistan-brokered arrangement, on the condition that Washington lifts its naval blockade.

Tehran also fired a rhetorical shot at Berlin. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei criticised Germany's stance on attacks against Iran, contrasting Chancellor Friedrich Merz's June 2025 description of Israel's offensive as doing the dirty work for everyone with German officials' October 2026 warnings against renewed strikes. He closed with a line from Schiller's The Maid of Orleans, questioning where reason goes amid the madness.