Saudi Arabia has broken its own record for executions carried out in a single year, according to an AFP tally, after authorities said three people were put to death Monday.

Axar.az informs the kingdom has killed 340 people so far this year, according to AFP's count, and has in recent years trailed only China and Iran among countries carrying out the death penalty.

The toll marks the second-straight year Saudi Arabia has broken its own record since rights groups first began documenting the number of executions in the 1990s. It executed 338 people in 2024.

A statement by the interior ministry carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said three individuals were executed in the Mecca region for murder convictions.

Since the start of 2025, Saudi Arabia has executed 232 people in drug-related cases, constituting the majority of the 340 executions carried out so far, according to AFP's tally, based on ministry and SPA announcements.

Analysts largely link the surge in executions to the kingdom's ongoing "war on drugs" launched in 2023, with many of those first arrested only now being executed, following legal proceedings and convictions.

Saudi Arabia resumed executions for drug offences at the end of 2022, after suspending the use of the death penalty in narcotics cases for around three years.

The Arab world's largest economy is also one of the biggest markets for Captagon, an illicit stimulant that was Syria's largest export under Bashar al-Assad, according to the United Nations. Assad was ousted last year.