Dammam airport attack: 1 killed, 8 injured; US orders diplomats to leave

ONE person was killed, and 8 others were injured in an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam city, in eastern Saudi Arabia, on the Persian Gulf near Bahrain and Qatar, according to Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said it has transported all the wounded, who sustained injuries ranging from minor to critical, to local hospitals for medical attention.

Global flight-tracking service Flightradar24 said on X that flights have been diverted away from the airport.

Authorities did not say who carried out the attack or provide further details.

King Fahd Airport has been attacked previously amid a wider wave of Houthi missile and projectile strikes targeting major airports in Saudi Arabia.

The Iranian-backed Houthis have not commented on this attack. The Saudi Coalition announced that it intercepted four drone attacks in the eastern region.

Drone intercepted at Aramco oilfield

The airport strike followed another deadly incident earlier in the day. The Ministry of Energy stated that two people were killed after Saudi air defences intercepted a drone attempting to strike a facility at Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield.

The ministry said the two people killed were Nepali and Filipino nationals, while the injured were Pakistani and Indian nationals.

Escalating attacks on aviation infrastructure

Wednesday's incidents mark the latest in a series of assaults on Saudi airports, driven by the intensifying conflict between Houthi forces and the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised Yemeni government.

Last week, the kingdom faced consecutive strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport. On October 11, a projectile strike killed one person and injured 11.

Just a day prior, on October 10, the civil aviation authority reported a separate, massive attack on the same airport that claimed the lives of 12 people and left more than 300 injured.

Last month, debris from an intercepted Houthi drone killed a Yemeni resident of Saudi Arabia. It was the first civilian casualty since the Houthis increased their attacks against the kingdom, targeting Saudi shipping and oil facilities.

Earlier this month, a limited fire broke out in an administrative building at Aramco, one of the world’s largest oil facilities, targeted in an attack in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, the energy ministry said at the time.

US issues security alert, withdraws staff

In response to the escalating Houthi attacks, the US State Department on Wednesday ordered diplomats and their family members to depart from its missions across Saudi Arabia.

Additionally, US officials told Reuters that plans are in place to withdraw family members from several other US diplomatic missions in the wider region.

On the same day, the US Embassy in Riyadh issued a formal security alert, warning of possible further attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia.