Washington orders nonessential staff and families out of Saudi Arabia over Houthi attacks

The U.S. State Department ordered nonessential staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia as an attack on Dammam airport killed one person and a drone attack targeted the Shaybah oil field.

The U.S. State Department ordered nonessential government employees and their family members to leave Saudi Arabia and plans to withdraw diplomats’ family members from several other U.S. missions in the region, U.S. officials told Reuters.

مبنى السفارة الأمريكية في الرياض

U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the decision came amid attacks by Iran-backed Houthi forces on civilian targets in the kingdom. He added that the Houthis had “intensified their hostile actions against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and vital infrastructure that caused civilian casualties and significantly disrupted travel.”

After the departure order was issued, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority announced that an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam killed one person and injured eight others. Earlier that day, two people were killed after Saudi air defenses intercepted a drone that attempted to target a facility at the Aramco-affiliated Shaybah oil field, according to the Energy Ministry.

مسجد مطار الملك فهد الدولي في الدمام

Four U.S. officials told Reuters that U.S. missions in other Gulf countries would also order family members to leave. Washington had returned some of its diplomatic personnel to the region in recent months after withdrawing many of them when the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran broke out in late February.

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