Saudi Coalition Downs Drone Near Mecca
Saudi Arabia says a Houthi drone flying toward Mecca was intercepted and destroyed, an incident the kingdom presented as a threat to Islam’s holiest city, as Washington tightened travel advice for the kingdom and prepared a large new bomb package for Israel.
The Saudi-led coalition announced the interception on social media early on Wednesday. Al Jazeera’s live war file treated the claim as an escalation that could put the pilgrimage city in the path of the wider conflict stretching from Yemen through the Gulf. There was no independent confirmation from the scene in the first hours.
The U.S. State Department raised its advisory for Saudi Arabia to Level 3, “reconsider travel,” citing the Saudi-Yemen fighting, the risk of Iranian drones and missiles aimed at American interests, terrorism, exit bans and local rules on social media. A Level 4 “do not travel” warning remains in force for Yemen.
The Associated Press, citing U.S. officials and a person familiar with the plan, reports that the Trump administration is preparing to approve a $2.8 billion arms package for Israel. The draft, not yet final, would include 40,000 bombs: 20,000 Mk84 2,000-pound free-fall weapons and 20,000 BLU-117 general-purpose bombs used by the U.S. Navy, some variants built to strike buried targets and others to detonate above ground. Congress has been informally notified and most of the bill would be met with foreign military financing – U.S. funds given to Israel to buy American weapons. A senior official told AFP that arms sales were moving through the usual process but would not discuss pending deals.
A Congressional Budget Office study requested by Representative Brendan Boyle and released on Tuesday put the six-month U.S. war with Iran at $38 billion, with costs still rising by about $3 billion a month. The CBO said the fighting is straining munitions stocks and could add 0.5 percentage points to inflation in the first quarter of 2027. Boyle called the war “disastrous.” Replenishing inventories, related reporting said, could take up to five years.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is travelling to China to see Wang Yi as Beijing tries to open a diplomatic track. In Iraq, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada denied a lawmaker’s claim that it had agreed to hand weapons to the state and restated conditions that include a U.S. and Turkish pull-out.
