JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A “limited fire” broke out at the United States Embassy in the Saudi capital of Riyadh after it was hit by two drones, while a fuel tank at Oman’s Duqm commercial port was hit in a drone attack, increasing regional pressure on Gulf Arab states housing US assets.

The strike on the US Embassy early on Tuesday caused “minor material damage” to the compound, the Saudi Ministry of Defence said in a statement. Later reports said more drones were targeting the site amid Iran’s retaliation across the Gulf to US-Israeli attacks.

🚨BREAKING: MASSIVE EXPLOSION AT US EMBASSY RIYADH pic.twitter.com/RNzHLhkAqr

— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) March 3, 2026

President ⁠Donald Trump ⁠told the NewsNation media outlet that the US response to the embassy attack and the killing of several American service members in Kuwait would soon be made clear. “You’ll find out soon,” he said.

Black smoke was ⁠seen rising over Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter, which houses foreign missions, after the attack, the Reuters news agency reported.

Three people told Reuters that a loud blast was heard and flames were seen at the embassy, though the Saudi Defence Ministry and one of the sources told the news agency that the fire in the aftermath of the drone attack was small in scale. The embassy building was empty at the time of the attack and there were no reports of casualties.

A source close to the Saudi military, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AFP news agency that air defences had intercepted four other drones targeting the Diplomatic Quarter in the attack.

Meanwhile, the state-run Oman News Agency reported that a fuel tank at the country’s Duqm commercial port was hit in a drone attack, causing limited material damage and no casualties.

Separately on Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted a US airbase in Bahrain, it said in a statement carried by the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

“The IRGC announced that … its naval forces carried out a large-scale drone and missile attack at dawn on the US air base in the Sheikh Isa area of Bahrain,” IRNA posted on the Telegram messaging app.

It said 20 drones and three missiles were launched, “destroying the base’s main command headquarters”, without providing evidence.

Tehran’s latest claimed attack came after its military launched salvoes across the Gulf region in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks on Iran that began on Saturday.

The US Department of State on Tuesday ordered nonemergency personnel to leave Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Iraq as a precaution.

It comes a day after US assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, Mora Namdar, posted on X that Americans in a dozen countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel, should “DEPART NOW” using any available commercial transport.

In Kuwait, the US Embassy said it had closed indefinitely over “regional tensions”. The US Embassy in Jerusalem said it was unable to evacuate or directly assist Americans intending to depart Israel.

Earlier on Tuesday, the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia issued ⁠a “shelter in place” notice to its citizens in the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran amid the attacks.

“We recommend American citizens in the Kingdom shelter in place immediately and avoid the Embassy until further notice due to an attack on the facility. The US Mission to Saudi Arabia continues to monitor the regional situation,” the embassy said.

International soccer star Christiano Ronaldo, who plays for Saudi Arabian team Al-Nassr, elected to take his family away from the Middle East after the local soccer league was suspended in the wake of the war,  and flew in a private jet back to Portugal.