The U.S. Department of State ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and family members to leave Saudi Arabia, while four U.S. officials told Reuters other Gulf missions planned family departures amid deadly attacks.
Tommy Pigott, a U.S. Department of State spokesman, said on X that the order covers Saudi Arabia only. He said it applies to government employees designated non-emergency and their family members. The four officials told Reuters that missions elsewhere in the Gulf would also ask staff families to depart. Pigott did not discuss plans beyond Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said an attack at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam left one person dead and eight injured on Wednesday, Oct. 21. The energy ministry separately reported that two people died after air defenses intercepted a drone headed for a facility at Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield.
The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh warned in a security alert Wednesday that further Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia were possible. Pigott said Iran-aligned Houthi attacks on civilian targets had caused casualties and disrupted travel.
Reuters situated the departure plans amid escalating combat in Yemen and a wider regional conflict set off by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which began in late February.
