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US Orders Non-Emergency Personnel To Leave Saudi Arabia As Houthis Strike Airports And Energy Sites
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US orders non-emergency personnel and families to leave Saudi Arabia amid Houthi attacks. Attacks have caused fatalities, including strikes on an Aramco oil site and an eastern airport.
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Diplomats moved from Saudi
The United States ordered non-emergency personnel and their family members to leave Saudi Arabia as “Iranian-supported Houthis have increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia,” a State Department spokesperson said. The BBC reported that debris from a drone intercepted during an attempted attack on an oil field killed two people, and the same account said one person died after a strike at the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. The State Department warned that the hostilities “have the potential to escalate rapidly,” as the Houthis responded to Saudi strikes by launching missiles and drones at airports, energy facilities and military bases in Saudi Arabia.
The BBC said the latest attack on the King Fahd International Airport left eight people injured, with injuries ranging from “minor to serious,” and it said no details of the attack had yet been given. The moves came as the conflict between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia had risen in the past month, and the BBC said a recent strike on Riyadh’s international airport was the deadliest in the kingdom in years.
Families face new upheaval
The United States quietly relocated some diplomats and their family members from posts across the Middle East as escalation fears grew, CNN reported citing multiple sources familiar with the moves. Nikki Gamer, the spokesperson for the American Foreign Service Association, told CNN that “families outside Saudi Arabia have told AFSA they are being directed to leave without confirmed housing assistance or per diem.” A State Department official confirmed to CNN that Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan “will see temporary changes to staffing levels under restricted operations.”
A U.S. diplomat told CNN that “To say it has been chaotic is an understatement,” explaining that financial support offered so far did not cover the costs for moving their entire family from the region. CNN said the State Department also ordered the departure of non-emergency personnel and all family members from Saudi Arabia in response to the Houthi escalations, while staffing caps were being adjusted at embassies in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon.
Broader regional risk
The U.S. moves came as tensions worsened between the U.S. and Israel drawing up plans for renewed strikes on the Islamic Republic, while Tehran said it struck more tankers going through the Strait of Hormuz, the Military outlet said. The Military outlet quoted State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott saying, “The safety and security of department personnel and their families remain our highest priority.” The Military outlet said a drone attack on Aramco’s Shaybah oil field killed two people from Nepal and the Philippines, and it said the projectile was intercepted but the people were killed by falling debris.
“The safety and security of department personnel and their families remain our highest priority.”
The Military outlet said operations at the field, which it described as having the capacity to produce 1 million barrels of crude a day, were unaffected, and it said two people were killed and several others were injured in an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam later in the day. The Military outlet also said President Donald Trump threatened to renew full-on strikes against the Islamic Republic, and it quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying: “We must complete the elimination of the Iranian regime.”