Saudi landmark closes offices, chopper pilots killed near Yemen

Riyadh's Kingdom Centre skyscraper announced mandatory remote working for office tenants on Sunday, following a series of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. The imposing 99-story landmark cited repeated Houthi assaults as the reason for the directive, which remains in effect until further notice. No explicit reason was provided for the order, but it follows a recent Houthi attack that killed 13 people at Riyadh's international airport.

The Saudi-led coalition, engaged in a decade-long war against Iran-backed Houthis, reported the loss of two pilot lives in a crash near the Yemen border. The Saudi coalition's war with Houthis has intensified since the onset of the US-Iran war, with both sides regularly reporting attacks. The Kingdom Centre, a prominent building in central Riyadh, houses various tenants including financial services giant Merrill Lynch, management consultancy McKinsey, and the International Monetary Fund.

The building's management informed office employees via email that remote working arrangements were now mandatory, effective immediately. They urged tenants to refrain from attending the offices during this period. The news of the mandatory remote working order spread quickly, with the mall at the center of Saudi Arabia's political and economic landscape.