The United States has ordered non-essential embassy staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, the State Department said on Wednesday, after an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam killed at least one person and wounded eight. The order came as Saudi Arabia reported near-daily attacks this month from Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis, including a drone interception at an oil field that killed two workers.
The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said on Wednesday that the wounded, ranging from minor to critical, had been taken to hospitals and that material damage to the airport was being assessed. Reports differed on the death toll: GACA said one person was killed, while RTÉ initially reported two dead before revising the figure to one. The authority did not describe the type of attack, but Saudi airports have been repeatedly targeted with projectiles in recent days by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis.
The State Department ordered the departure of non-emergency embassy staff and their families from Saudi Arabia. Spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a social media post that "Iranian-supported Houthis have increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions." He added: "The safety and security of Department personnel and their families remain our highest priority." A diplomatic source told reporters that some families of US embassy personnel were also being withdrawn from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain, but Pigott stressed the order covered non-emergency embassy staff and their families in Saudi Arabia only. The US embassy in Riyadh issued a security alert about possible further Houthi attacks.
Separately, Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said falling debris from a successful interception of a drone targeting the Shaybah oilfield killed two people, a Filipino and a Nepali, and injured two others. The ministry did not say who launched the drone.
The attacks follow the collapse in June of a four-year truce in Yemen's civil war, reviving a conflict dating back to 2014 in which a Saudi-led coalition has backed Yemen's internationally recognised government since 2015. Earlier this month, a strike on Riyadh's international airport killed 12 people and injured more than 300, and a subsequent projectile strike on the same airport on October 11 killed one and injured 11.
Analysis
Why This Matters
- The US departure order signals that Washington sees the Houthi campaign against Saudi Arabia as a serious and ongoing threat to personnel and civilian infrastructure.
- Attacks on civilian airports and oil facilities are disrupting regional travel and energy operations, raising the risk of broader escalation.
- The collapse of the Yemen truce has revived a conflict that had been largely frozen for four years, with civilian casualties now mounting inside Saudi Arabia.
Background
Yemen's civil war began in 2014 when Houthi forces took the capital Sanaa, and a Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to back the internationally recognised government. A four-year truce collapsed in June, ending a period of relative calm. Since then, Houthi attacks on Saudi territory have become near-daily, according to Saudi authorities, including strikes on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport that killed 12 people earlier this month. The United States, which supports the Saudi-led coalition, has now moved to reduce its diplomatic footprint in the kingdom.
Key Perspectives
The United States: The State Department says the Houthis have escalated hostilities against Saudi Arabia, attacking civilian airports and critical infrastructure and causing casualties and severe travel disruption. It describes personnel safety as its highest priority and stresses that the departure order applies only to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia: Saudi authorities have reported the attacks, assessed damage and carried out defensive interceptions, but did not describe the type of assault on Dammam or assign blame for the Shaybah drone. Saudi Arabia and the United States attribute the wider campaign to Iran-backed Houthis; the Houthis are not quoted in these reports.
Critics and skeptics: The reported death toll from the Dammam attack varied across sources, underscoring information uncertainty in the middle of an active conflict. There are also concerns that diplomatic withdrawals could reduce Western visibility in the region while attacks mount.
What to Watch
- Whether Houthi attacks on Saudi airports and oil infrastructure continue or intensify over the coming days.
- Whether the United States expands departure orders to other missions in the region, as the diplomatic source suggested.
- How Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners respond, and whether defensive interceptions escalate into a wider military confrontation.