Office employees at Riyadh’s 99-story Kingdom Centre were told to work remotely beginning Sunday and not to return until further notice, according to Agence France-Presse reporting cited in the supplied material. The building’s management did not state a reason for the order. Its shopping mall remained open to visitors.
The directive came amid heightened concern over attacks attributed to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement. The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted two drones in the Riyadh area, another drone over the Eastern Province, and two ballistic missiles in southern Saudi Arabia overnight. Authorities had earlier issued a threat alert in the capital.
Kingdom Centre is a prominent Riyadh landmark, and its tenants include Merrill Lynch, McKinsey & Company and the International Monetary Fund, according to the source. The work-from-home measure applies to office staff; the report did not say that the shopping mall or the entire building had closed.
The reported security concerns follow attacks that the source says struck King Khalid International Airport on Oct. 10 and Oct. 11. The first killed 13 people and injured more than 300, while the following day’s strike killed one person and wounded 11, according to the account. Airport operations have faced severe disruption, and schools in Riyadh extended remote-learning measures amid continued threats.
Separately, Saudi authorities reported two deaths in a helicopter crash near the southern border with Yemen. Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said an AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter went down in the Najran region because of a technical malfunction, killing both crew members.
Saudi civil defense authorities also said a hostile projectile hit a residential neighborhood in Najran. Six people were injured, and three homes and three vehicles were damaged, the authorities reported.
Egypt was considering whether to provide defensive military assistance to Saudi Arabia if Riyadh requested it. Reuters reported that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi sought an emergency parliamentary session to authorize such support, with lawmakers expected to continue discussions Monday. Egypt’s presidency said the country was prepared to assist Saudi Arabia in protecting its security, stability, territorial integrity and Islamic holy sites.
The announcement followed a meeting of Egypt’s National Defense Council chaired by el-Sissi and attended by senior government and military officials. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty also spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan about regional developments and the importance of de-escalation, according to a post on X cited by the source.
The Houthi movement controls Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north, the report said. The Saudi-led coalition supports Yemen’s internationally recognized government. The source described the fighting as intensifying amid the broader U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. The material does not establish that Egypt has approved or deployed military forces, or provide further independent confirmation of the reported attacks.
