Aramco evacuates staff as Saudi Arabia braces for potential Houthi escalation: What to know

At least four people were killed in new Houthi attacks at Saudi Arabia’s airports and oil facilities on Wednesday evening, prompting Saudi oil giant Aramco to order the evacuation of its staff from its headquarters while the United States asked nonessential government employees in the kingdom to leave.

What happened: Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said on Thursday that two people including an Indian national were killed and another eight injured in an attack at the King Fahd International Airport in the eastern city of Dammam, which was blamed on Yemen’s Houthi group.

Operations resumed Thursday following Wednesday's attack and air traffic returned to normal, the authority added.

Separately on Wednesday, Saudi air defenses intercepted a drone launched by the Houthis toward a southeastern facility at Aramco’s oil field in Shaybah. The fallen debris killed two people, a Filipino and Nepali, according to the Saudi Ministry of Energy.

The Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for a series of missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia’s airports and energy infrastructure in the past 48 hours, including at the King Fahd International Airport, the Abha International Airport and an Aramco facility in Yanbu as well as the Ministry of Defense in Riyadh.

The Saudi-led coalition said on Thursday it intercepted at least five drones fired from Yemen toward the Eastern province and the capital Riyadh. On Wednesday, the coalition accused the Houthis of launching a drone toward Medina, one of Islam’s holiest cities, that was shot down.

The Houthi rebels have escalated their attacks against Saudi Arabia since September in response to Saudi airstrikes in Yemen, where fighting between the Houthis and government forces is intensifying.

Why it matters: In light of the escalation in Saudi Arabia, Aramco has reportedly ordered its employees to evacuate its headquarters ​in the eastern city of Dhahran and transition to remote work, six people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

Al-Monitor has reached out to Aramco.

If confirmed, this would be the first time the Saudi oil giant has ordered the evacuation of its headquarters since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had launched hundreds of drone and missile attacks at energy facilities across the Gulf, including in Saudi Arabia, in response to joint US-Israeli strikes.

On Oct. 13, the administrative building belonging to Aramco’s headquarters complex in Dhahran suffered a “limited fire” after a Houthi attack, according to the Saudi Ministry of Energy.

The Houthis acknowledged launching a large-scale drone and missile attack on Aramco’s headquarters as well as an Aramco refinery in Riyadh.

Meanwhile, the US State Department ordered the departure for nonessential US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia, spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a post on X Wednesday.

“Iranian-supported Houthis have increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions,” Pigott added.

Know more: The repeated Houthi attacks threaten to drag the region into a wider conflict as Riyadh looks for broader military backing.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said during an event in Cairo on Wednesday that his country's proposed military support for Saudi Arabia was to “defend Saudi territory and does not include an attack on Yemen.” Sisi asked the Egyptian parliament last week to vote on his request to send military support to Saudi Arabia.

A voting session is expected to be held next Monday.

Turkey submitted the Mecca defense agreement it signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in August to parliament for ratification on Tuesday in a move that could pave the way for potentially deploying troops to the kingdom.

The Aug. 7 trilateral defense pact commits the three countries to treating an armed attack against one as an attack against all.

Meanwhile, the British Ministry of Defense announced on Tuesday it will deploy Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets to help Saudi Arabia repel the Houthi attacks.