US orders diplomats to depart Saudi Arabia amid Houthi strikes

JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL/DUBAI: The US State Department has ordered some diplomatic personnel and their families to leave its missions in Saudi Arabia and plans to withdraw family members from several other American missions across the region, US officials told Reuters.

The decision follows a series of attacks in Saudi Arabia that killed at least one person and injured eight others at a civilian airport in Dammam, while two people were killed in a drone incident near an oilfield.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the department had ordered the departure of non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia in response to attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on civilian targets.

“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,” Pigott said in a post on X.

Four US officials told Reuters that American missions in other Gulf countries would also be directing family members to leave. Pigott did not comment on possible changes to diplomatic staffing at missions outside Saudi Arabia.

Washington had returned some diplomatic personnel to the region in recent months after withdrawing many of them following Iranian attacks on US facilities that began after the US-Israeli war against Iran started in late February.

The latest withdrawals follow an escalation of the fighting in Yemen, opening another front ​in the regional conflict triggered by the US-Israeli ⁠war on Iran. The wider conflict has snarled global energy trade and hurt Gulf economies.

After the departure order, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority reported an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam that killed one person and injured eight others. Earlier in the day, two people were killed after Saudi air defences intercepted a drone that was attempting to hit a facility at Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield, the energy ministry said.

The US embassy in Riyadh issued a security alert on Wednesday about possible further attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia, after recent deadly strikes including on Riyadh’s airport.

The embassy and a CIA station hosted there came under attack by drones in early March, as Iran began launching attacks across the region.