One Killed, Eight Injured in Attack on Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd Airport in Dammam
RIYADH: One person was killed and eight others were injured in an attack on Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd International Airport in the eastern city of Dammam, the kingdom’s civil aviation authority announced on Wednesday. The King Fahd airport attack is the latest in a rapidly escalating wave of strikes on Saudi civilian infrastructure.
The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said in a statement that all of the wounded, whose injuries range from minor to critical, were immediately transported to hospitals for medical attention. The authority said material damage to the airport was being assessed and that further updates would follow.
Flightradar24 said flights were diverted away from the airport overnight into Thursday. GACA did not disclose the nature of the weapon used.
Pakistani and Indian nationals hurt in separate drone incident
Earlier on Wednesday, the energy ministry said two people were killed after air defences intercepted a drone targeting Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield in the southeast. The ministry identified the two dead as Nepali and Filipino nationals.
A Pakistani and an Indian national were injured when falling debris struck a contractor’s vehicle and started a fire. The ministry said oilfield operations were unaffected.
The Houthis have not commented on the Dammam attack.
King Fahd airport attack part of wider Houthi campaign
The Dammam strike continues a pattern of assaults on Saudi airports as the conflict intensifies between Houthi forces and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. King Fahd airport has been targeted before. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted four drone attacks in the kingdom’s Eastern region.
Al Jazeera recalled that a projectile strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid airport on October 11 killed one person and injured 11, while the civil aviation authority said a separate attack there on October 10 claimed 12 lives and injured more than 300.
The Houthis have acknowledged attacking some Saudi airports in the past, claiming without evidence that the kingdom used the facilities for military purposes.
US orders diplomats out as tensions rise
On Wednesday, the US State Department ordered non-essential embassy personnel and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, as oil prices jumped past $110 a barrel on fears of a wider conflict.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the Houthis had intensified hostilities against the kingdom, targeting civilian airports and critical infrastructure. A diplomatic source told AFP some families of US staff were also being withdrawn from the UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain, though the formal order applied only to Saudi Arabia.
The US embassy in Riyadh issued a security alert warning of possible further Houthi attacks, while Egypt, Turkiye and France have all signalled military support for the kingdom in recent days.
What happens next
GACA has promised further updates as its damage assessment continues. The Dammam strike follows weeks of escalation: regional allies moved this week to bolster the kingdom’s air defences, an earlier Riyadh airport strike also claimed a Pakistani life, and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia agreed a Rs500 billion halal food export target this week.
With flights diverted, diplomats departing and the Houthis showing no sign of slowing their campaign, the attack marks another step in a confrontation already disrupting air travel, energy markets and diplomacy across the region.
For Pakistan the stakes are direct: a Pakistani national was injured on Wednesday, thousands of Pakistani workers live in the Eastern Province, and any sustained disruption to Gulf energy supplies feeds into fuel prices at home.
What happened at King Fahd airport?
An attack late on Wednesday on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam killed one Saudi resident and injured eight people, according to the General Authority of Civil Aviation. The nature of the weapon used has not been disclosed.
Who was killed and injured?
One Saudi resident was killed and eight wounded at the airport. In a separate drone interception at the Shaybah oilfield the same day, a Nepali and a Filipino national were killed and a Pakistani and an Indian national injured.
Who is behind the attacks?
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have not commented on the Dammam attack, but the strikes fit a wider wave of Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports and energy facilities in recent weeks.
How have flights been affected?
Flights were diverted away from King Fahd airport overnight into Thursday, and Lufthansa and Air France have cancelled Saudi services through mid-November.
*Sources: Al Jazeera and Associated Press reporting on the GACA statement.*
