An Indian national is among two people killed after a projectile fell on a residential area in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, officials said.

The military projectile hit a residential compound belonging to a maintenance and cleaning company in Al-Kharj, killing two people and injuring 12 others, the Saudi Civil Defence said.

A Bangladeshi national is among the deceased, while 12 Bangladeshi residents were injured, Al-Arabiya news reported. However, the authorities have not yet released the identity of the victims.

In a post on X, the Saudi Civil Defence said "attempts to target civilian objects are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law...".

BRICS divided

As Israeli and American strikes pummelled Iran, its powerful friends around the world couldn’t quite agree on how to react.

Brazil, China and Russia swiftly condemned the military attack on Iran, which joined them two years ago in the BRICS group of emerging economies.

India, which chairs the bloc’s presidency this year, appeared to take the other side, favouring the US and Israel by staying quiet about their bombardment, while criticising Iran’s retaliatory attacks in the region.

South Africa, another member, was more cautious, expressing vague concerns about the conflict without naming any specific country, seemingly keen to avoid the kind of American backlash it recently faced after hosting navy drills with Iran and other BRICS nations.

Notably absent was any joint statement or show of solidarity. It was a clear sign that the conflict may be testing the unity of BRICS and forcing it to grapple with an uncomfortable question: Can it really build a new world order without ideological alignment among its members?

Unlike Nato, BRICS members have made no explicit pledge to defend one another. Instead, the bloc has focused on a largely economic agenda.

In recent years though, the group has begun to position itself more forcefully as a counterweight to US hegemony. In an effort to advance that goal, it expanded to include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the UAE.

In an awkward twist further undermining the organisation, Iranian missiles and drones have struck the Emirates, another member of the bloc. And as the conflict has spilled across the region, it has paralysed one of the world’s most important trade corridors, threatening the economic interests and the energy security of some of its members.

“The group is not united at all,” said Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr, former vice-president of the BRICS Development Bank. “And this undermines the idea of joint action.”

PTI & New York Times News Service