The State Department cited Houthi strikes on Saudi airports and infrastructure. Whether other Gulf missions will follow is disputed.
WASHINGTON – The United States has ordered non-emergency government employees and their family members to leave Saudi Arabia, as attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement on the kingdom intensify. The State Department announced the order Wednesday.
Spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a post on X that Iran-backed Houthis have “increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia.” He pointed to attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure that have caused civilian casualties and severe travel disruption. He said the safety of department personnel and their families remained the top priority.
It is unclear how far the order extends. Four US officials told Reuters that US missions in other Gulf states would also order family members to leave. A diplomatic source told AFP that some families were being withdrawn in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain. Pigott said an earlier media report on plans for departures across Gulf embassies was inaccurate, and he stressed that Wednesday’s order covered Saudi Arabia only.
Saudi Arabia has come under near-daily Houthi attacks this month. A strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 300, according to ABC News. The airport partially reopened Wednesday with limited flights. On Wednesday, aviation officials said one person was killed and eight wounded in an attack on Dammam airport in the east. The Saudi energy ministry said debris from an intercepted drone aimed at the Shaybah oil field killed two people, a Filipino and a Nepali, and injured two others. It did not say who launched the drone. The US embassy in Riyadh also issued a security alert warning of possible further Houthi attacks.
The order comes amid a wider regional war. The US and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February, and Washington has ordered staff out of the Gulf before, ahead of the war and again in July. A four-year truce in Yemen’s civil war collapsed in June, reviving a conflict that dates to 2014. Australia raised its travel advice for Saudi Arabia to “do not travel” last Friday.
Still unclear is whether other US missions in the Gulf will confirm departures, given the conflicting accounts, and whether the Houthi strikes on Saudi airports and energy sites continue.
This report draws on information from Al Jazeera, ABC News, AFP and Reuters.