The U.S. State Department on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, ordered non-emergency government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, citing escalating Houthi attacks. Hours later, a strike on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam killed two people and injured eight. The Saudi Arabia ordered departure is the sharpest U.S. security step in the kingdom since the Iran war began.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott announced the order in a post on X, saying it applied to “non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia only.” He wrote that the Iranian-supported Houthis in Yemen “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.”
Dammam airport attack and Shaybah oilfield strike
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said the attack on King Fahd International Airport, the main airport serving the Eastern Province, happened late Wednesday. It first reported one death and later raised the toll to two, a Saudi citizen and an Indian national, with eight people injured. India’s embassy in Riyadh confirmed that one of its citizens was killed, The National reported.
The National said flight operations halted at around 11:15 p.m. local time. The aviation authority later said the airport had resumed operations and air traffic had returned to normal.
Earlier the same day, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said two people died when air defenses intercepted a drone aimed at a facility at Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield. Together, the two incidents killed four people in a single day.
A month of Houthi strikes on Saudi airports
Wednesday’s attacks extend a deadly run against Saudi civil aviation. On Oct. 10, a strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport killed 12 people and injured more than 300, according to the civil aviation authority. A second projectile strike on the same airport on Oct. 11 killed one person and injured 11, Al Jazeera reported.
The violence has already disrupted business in the kingdom. The Boston Report previously covered the postponement of Riyadh’s Future Investment Initiative after Houthi attacks, as well as Britain’s defensive Typhoon air missions over Saudi Arabia.
On Thursday, Xinhua cited a Yemeni security official as saying the Houthis had also fired drones and ballistic missiles at an oil export terminal near Al-Shihr and at Al-Rayan International Airport in Mukalla, inside government-held Hadramout province in Yemen.
Is the State Department pulling families from other Gulf states?
That question remained in dispute Thursday. Four U.S. officials told Reuters that U.S. missions in other Gulf states would also order family members to leave. A diplomatic source told AFP that families in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain had been told to depart, The National reported.
Pigott called reports of a Gulf-wide order “inaccurate” and said publicly that the ordered departure covers Saudi Arabia only. The U.S. mission in the UAE had warned on Sunday that the hostilities “have the potential to escalate rapidly beyond that immediate area.”
Washington had only recently returned some diplomats to the region. Many were pulled out after Tehran launched attacks on U.S. facilities following the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in late February, Reuters reported.
What it means for travelers and oil markets
An ordered departure is mandatory for covered government staff and families, while embassies usually keep core operations running with reduced personnel. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh issued a separate security alert Wednesday warning of possible further Houthi attacks. Americans in Saudi Arabia should follow embassy alerts and check flight status before heading to an airport.
Markets reacted quickly. Brent crude climbed above $110 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate traded around $98 after news of the Dammam strike, according to The National.
Egypt and Turkey weigh in on Saudi defense
Regional partners are lining up behind Riyadh, with limits. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said Wednesday that Egypt’s military efforts would be confined to defending Saudi territory and borders and would not involve attacking Yemen, according to a statement from his office reported by Xinhua. Turkey, meanwhile, is preparing a parliamentary mandate to send military personnel to the kingdom under a three-way defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, Reuters reported.
The Boston Report will follow whether the departure order widens to other U.S. missions in the Gulf.
Featured image: The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh. Photo: U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources
- Reuters via Investing.com: US orders diplomats to depart Saudi Arabia amid Houthi strikes
- The National: US pulls diplomats from Saudi Arabia but denies wider Gulf withdrawal
- Al Jazeera: Attack on Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd airport kills two people
- Xinhua: Daily World Briefing, Oct. 22
- AP: US orders some diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia during Houthi fight
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