Riyadh’s United States embassy announced on Friday that Washington has ordered all non-emergency government employees and their family members to leave Saudi Arabia, effective October 23, because of safety risks from Houthi attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure.
Friday’s order matters because it is a rare public drawdown of American diplomatic staff in the Gulf, and it signals that Washington now judges the threat to civil aviation in Saudi Arabia as serious enough to move families out, not only to warn travellers.
According to Reuters, the US Mission to Saudi Arabia said in a security alert that Houthi attacks had caused casualties and major travel disruptions, and warned that hostilities could escalate rapidly. The mission told remaining government employees that they must obtain special authorisation from the chief of mission before using any airport in the kingdom, following recent missile and drone attacks.
American citizens were warned of possible further attacks, airspace closures, flight cancellations and other travel disruptions, the embassy said. It urged citizens to exercise extreme caution when travelling by air, and, according to the alert as reported on Friday, warned against photographing missile interceptions or attack sites, citing Saudi regulations.
Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport has partially reopened, the embassy said, while airports in Jeddah and Dammam remain operational with some delays and cancellations. The airport had resumed operations on October 25, with Terminal 1 designated for domestic flights and Terminal 2 for international flights operated by national carriers, after a deadly attack earlier in October forced a suspension.
Friday itself showed why the warning was issued. Yemen’s Houthis targeted the presidential palace in Aden with two missiles on Friday, according to a police official cited by Dawn, hours after Saudi forces said they had intercepted an attack on the Gulf kingdom.
Shortly before that, residents in Aden said they heard two blasts, and two eyewitnesses told Agence France-Presse they saw ambulances entering the palace compound, which includes facilities used by government and Saudi-led coalition forces. The Saudi coalition said on Friday it had intercepted and destroyed a drone near Riyadh, as well as a missile fired towards the country’s southern region.
Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said in posts on X that forces had destroyed the drone in Riyadh province and a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi militia toward the southern region. Earlier on Friday, the coalition said it had intercepted a Houthi drone in the Makkah region, with the group denying it targeted the holy city, and hours later Malki reported another drone interception over the Madina region.
Thursday had brought a similar pattern. The Saudi-led coalition announced that its air defences had intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis toward Riyadh, and on Friday it reported intercepting a Houthi cruise missile targeting western Saudi Arabia, as well as a drone in the Riyadh region. The Houthis have also claimed attacks on Saudi oil facilities and airports in recent days.
Behind the airport warnings sits a wider war. The fighting between Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s government has intensified in recent weeks, Reuters reported, opening a volatile new front in the wider war with Iran. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support the internationally recognised government against the Houthis, who have controlled the capital Sanaa since September 2014.
What is confirmed is the departure order, its October 23 effective date, the airport restrictions on remaining staff, and the partial reopening in Riyadh alongside continued operations in Jeddah and Dammam. What is not confirmed is how long the departure order will last, or whether the hostilities will escalate further, as the embassy warned they rapidly could. For now, American travellers have been told to check flight status with airlines before heading to airports, and remaining government staff may not use a Saudi airport without special authorisation.
