Guwahati: An attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia, killed one Saudi resident and injured eight others, the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority said early Thursday, as Washington ordered non-essential US embassy staff and their families to leave the kingdom amid escalating attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The attack caused material damage at the airport, which is located on the Persian Gulf near Bahrain and Qatar.
Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 said on X that flights were being diverted away from the airport following the attack.
The incident came amid a series of attacks on Saudi Arabia, including strikes targeting airports and oil facilities.
Washington’s departure order followed a series of deadly attacks in Saudi Arabia and growing concerns over an escalation in regional hostilities.
US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott confirmed on Wednesday that non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia had been ordered to leave. He cited Houthi attacks on the kingdom, saying the safety and security of US personnel and their families remained a priority.
The announcement followed a diplomatic source’s account that American staff and their families had been ordered to depart the US embassy. The State Department clarified that the directive applied to non-emergency US government employees and their families in Saudi Arabia.
The order came as the kingdom faced near-daily attacks attributed to the Houthis, including a strike on Riyadh’s international airport earlier this month.
On Wednesday, debris from an intercepted drone targeting the Shaybah oil field in southeastern Saudi Arabia killed two people and injured two others, the Saudi Energy Ministry said. The victims killed were a Nepali and a Filipino national, while the injured were Pakistani and Indian nationals.
The ministry did not identify who launched the drone. Earlier on Wednesday, the Saudi-led coalition reported intercepting six drones.
Saudi Arabia has also faced attacks on its energy infrastructure. Last month, debris from an intercepted Houthi drone killed a Yemeni resident in the kingdom. Earlier this month, a limited fire broke out in an administrative building at Aramco in the Eastern Province following an attack, the energy ministry said.
The developments come amid a wider conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran that began in late February. Iran has sought to restrict shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supplies passed in peacetime. Washington has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports and vessels.
In Yemen, a four-year truce in the civil war collapsed in June, reviving a conflict that began in 2014. The Saudi-led coalition has backed Yemen’s internationally recognised government since 2015.