US Orders Staff Evacuation from Saudi Arabia Amidst Houthi Attacks, Denies Wider Regional Pullout

The United States has directed non-essential personnel and their families to evacuate Saudi Arabia due to a significant increase in Houthi attacks. Tommy Pigott, a spokesperson for the State Department, confirmed the order via a post on X, specifying that it applies only to "non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia." Pigott explicitly denied reports that the withdrawal extended to US diplomatic families in the broader Gulf region, countering claims from wire agencies that diplomatic relatives in the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, and Bahrain were also to depart.

The announcement followed a late Wednesday evening attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, which resulted in one fatality and eight injuries, according to the Saudi civil aviation authority. Earlier the same day, Saudi air defenses intercepted a drone targeting a facility at Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield, leading to two deaths, as reported by the energy ministry. News of the airport attack caused oil prices to rise, with Brent crude surpassing $110 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate trading near $98.

Pigott stated that the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have "increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia," including strikes on civilian airports that have caused fatalities and significant travel disruptions. The General Authority of Civil Aviation confirmed the airport was targeted, and flight-tracking service Flightradar24 indicated that airport operations were halted from approximately 11:15 PM local time.

Despite Pigott's assertion that reports of a Gulf-wide order were "inaccurate," four US officials informed Reuters that diplomatic missions in other Gulf states would also instruct family members to leave. A diplomatic source told AFP that families in the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, and Bahrain had been notified to depart. The State Department has not officially confirmed either account. The US mission in the UAE had previously warned on Sunday that hostilities "have the potential to escalate rapidly beyond that immediate area." The US embassy in Riyadh had issued a security alert on Wednesday, cautioning of potential further Houthi attacks, following recent deadly strikes, including one on Riyadh's airport.

This latest evacuation follows an escalation of fighting in Yemen, which has opened another front in a regional conflict impacting global energy trade and Gulf economies. Many US diplomatic staff had been sent back to the region in recent months after being withdrawn following Iran's attacks on US facilities in late February, including the Riyadh embassy and a CIA station in the Saudi capital, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.