The 2025 Riyadh Bombings were a series of coordinated attacks in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 26th, 2025. Initial estimates suggest that at least 304 people were killed and over a thousand injured in simultaneous truck bombings that targeted the Ministerial Council headquarters of the Gulf States Union. Over the past week, the council had been discussing furthering trade and other diplomatic efforts to countries outside of the Middle East and even possibly, the normalization of relations with the state of Israel. On the 26th, economists and politicians were meeting to discuss oil production in Iraq when a truck bomb detonated outside the council headquarters at 9:47 a.m. and later after emergency services arrived at the council headquarters, a second much larger truck bomb detonated at a nearby office building at 10:17 a.m. It is believed that a majority of the casualties in the attacks were civilians living and working nearby, while “dozens” of emergency personnel and policemen were hit in the second attack.
The attack triggered diplomatic uproar from Saudi Arabia and other GSU states who accused the Muslim Liberation Army and Iran of being responsible for the bombings. Iran has denied any responsibility in the attacks and an intelligence report from ANZC suggested that the attackers may have belonged to an MLA allied group that has been active in Iraq and Egypt. Regardless GSU military officials released an announcement on June 29th that “retribution will come to all those who played a role in the attacks.” Triggering fears that a widespread conflict may break out between the GSU and Iran and its allies.
Shortly after the attack, Saudi Arabian officials shut down their airspace to prevent any further attacks while security officials launched a massive investigation into the bombings and is currently searching for any suspects who assisted in the attack and are still in Saudi Arabia. And meanwhile many foreign ministers from GSU NAT who were in Riyadh but had not been affected in the bombings were subsequently evacuated to an undisclosed military base before being secretly transferred back to their home countries under military escort.
The attack is considered a significant escalation and a major setback to peace efforts in the Middle East. While the severity of the attack and mostly civilian casualties has worried many international observers of the potential impact on civilians in case of conflict in the region.
Background and previous tensions[]
Purported MLA fighters in Iraq circa. 1988
The Muslim Liberation Army is an Islamic paramilitary organization and has been described as a quasi state based in the area East of Iran and North of Afghanistan. The MLA originated from the First Gulf War between Iran and the former state of Ba’athist Iraq led by Saddam Hussein. The organization was formed in 1987 by Iranian military officer Ali Sayad Shirazi and a group of radical Islamists with military and political support from Iran to fight against Iraq. The MLA was able to recruit many Iraqis due to its more unitarian stance which was deliberate from Shirazi and other MLA leadership as they wished to not deepen sectarian tensions by choosing a more Shia or Sunni affiliation that is despite most of the early leadership being mostly Shia Iranians and Iraqis. After the defeat of Hussein and end of the war in 1990, the MLA played a major role in the various ethnic and political conflicts that gripped Iraq in the 90s, especially playing a major role in the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iraq gaining greater independence from Iran as the MLA started pursuing greater goals.
Most notably the MLA started to become a more militant and international organization instead of just an Iranian proxy fighting in Iraq. This more international growth came with a shift of strategy towards fighting “anti-Islamic global powers” such as Socialist Siberia, Israel, ANZC, the SAC, and the main power in the region the GSU. Iran becoming aware and slightly alarmed by the MLA’s growth gave the MLA the region which would become the base of MLA operations and the site of an unofficial quasi-state. The MLA, now with a new home began training new international fighters and garnering more advanced weapons and by 2018, a report by the League of Nations warned that the MLA had significant military power and may be planning future strikes against their enemies. Regardless, many GSU officials had dismissed the idea of an MLA attack as unrealistic and believed that the MLA would strike a country like Israel or Siberia before any GSU nation.