US orders non-emergency embassy staff, families out of Saudi Arabia over Houthi attacks
- The US State Department has told non-emergency government employees and their families in Saudi Arabia to leave.
- The order follows near-daily Houthi attacks, including a strike on Riyadh's airport and a drone aimed at an oil field.
- Debris from the intercepted drone killed a Filipino and a Nepali worker and injured two others, the Saudi energy ministry said.
Washington has ordered non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia to leave the country, the State Department said on Wednesday, as the kingdom faces sustained attacks from Yemen's Houthis.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott confirmed the order in a post on X. He said it applied to "non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia only", and linked it to Houthi attacks on the kingdom, including airports.
"The safety and security of Department personnel and their families remain our highest priority," Pigott said.
Earlier, a diplomatic source told AFP that all American staff and their families had been ordered to depart the US embassy. Reuters, quoting three US officials, reported that the planned departures could involve evacuating all personnel and their families from the US mission in Saudi Arabia. The US embassy in Riyadh also issued a security alert warning of possible further attacks.
An ordered departure is a US government security measure that directs designated staff, and where applicable their families, to leave a diplomatic post over safety concerns. It is different from a voluntary departure.
Why it matters beyond the Gulf
Saudi Arabia has come under near-daily attack this month from the Iran-backed Houthis. A strike on Riyadh's international airport was the kingdom's deadliest in years.
On Wednesday, the Saudi energy ministry said falling debris from the interception of a drone targeting an oil facility killed two people and injured two others. The ministry named the dead as a Filipino and a Nepali. It did not say who launched the drone, which was aimed at the Shaybah oil field near the UAE border.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it intercepted six drones the same day. In June, a four-year truce in Yemen's civil war collapsed, reviving a conflict that dates back to 2014. The coalition has backed Yemen's internationally recognised government since 2015.
For Nigerians, the Gulf is a major destination for oil exports, business travel, pilgrimage and migrant work. Any widening of the conflict around the Strait of Hormuz, which in peacetime carried about a fifth of the world's oil, can feed into global crude prices and, in turn, into fuel and transport costs at home.
Late on Wednesday, Iranian state media reported explosions in Hormozgan province, which overlooks the Strait of Hormuz. The official IRNA news agency said the sound was heard in the Karpan area of Sirik, and that local sources had not yet disclosed the nature of the explosions.
The wider conflict began in late February, when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran that killed the country's supreme leader and senior military commanders. Iran has tried to blockade the strategic waterway, demanding that ships seek its authorisation to cross, while the US has imposed a counterblockade on Iranian ports and ships.
What happens next
The full scope of the departure order and the diplomatic missions affected had not been fully established, according to Reuters. The US embassy in Riyadh has warned Americans to watch for further attacks.
