One person was killed and eight wounded when King Fahd International Airport in Dammam came under attack on Wednesday evening, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said in a statement issued in the early hours of Thursday. It called the victim a resident of the kingdom. The wounded, with injuries somewhere between minor and severe, went to hospital straight away, and GACA said the airport had taken material damage that engineers were still sizing up.
Flightradar24 noted on X that aircraft were being diverted. Dammam is Saudi Arabia's third-largest airport and the main one for the oil-producing Eastern Province, so the knock-on for travellers there is not small.
GACA hasn't said what hit the airport. It hasn't said who sent it either, and the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which gave a running count of drones it stopped on Wednesday, didn't pin those on anyone. Spokesman Turki al-Maliki first reported four intercepted over the Eastern Province, then one more, then a sixth, with some aimed toward the Medina region. Reports so far don't say whether any of them got through to the airport.
The Houthis, who have been fighting Yemen's internationally recognised government for more than a decade, put out a denial earlier in the day. Their military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said the group hadn't carried out operations deep inside Saudi territory. Yet on Sunday, Oct. 11, the same spokesman said in a televised speech that Houthi forces had struck Dammam's airport, and Saudi authorities confirmed a hit on it that night.
Two people died on Wednesday at the Shaybah oilfield, close to the UAE border. Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said air defences intercepted a drone aimed at the site, and falling debris killed a Filipino and a Nepali worker and hurt two others. Again, no one was named as the sender.
The US order covers every American employee at the embassy in Saudi Arabia and their families, per AFP's source. Families of embassy staff in the UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain were told to leave as well.
Emmanuel Macron went the other way. The French president flew into Riyadh on Wednesday on short notice to see Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a trip his office framed as solidarity, and he is the first Western leader to visit since the Houthi attacks picked up this month. He also has fuel on his mind. The Riyadh stop is part of a Gulf tour to secure diesel and petrol for France, where protests over living costs have turned violent.
Cairo is being careful with its words. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said any Egyptian help would be to defend Saudi territory, not to attack Yemen. Parliament met twice behind closed doors on the request and pushed the debate to next week, and Egypt's foreign minister and spy chief took a letter from Sisi to the crown prince in Riyadh. Nobody has said what was in it.
King Khalid International in the capital closed on Oct. 10 after a strike the Houthis claimed, which killed 13 people and wounded more than 300. AFP called it the deadliest attack on Saudi soil in over a decade. The next night another strike there killed a Pakistani resident and wounded 11, and schools in Riyadh moved online.
It's only just reopening. Saudia and flynas ran a limited number of flights on Wednesday, two days after airlines were told they could return with prior permission. Lufthansa and Air France have cancelled flights through mid-November. Britain's embassy had already warned its citizens on Oct. 11 against all but essential travel to Dammam, Jeddah and every Saudi airport except Medina's.
It's day 235 of the US-Israel war with Iran. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that Tehran is open to diplomacy, but warned that if Washington "chooses war over diplomacy," the result would be a bigger strategic failure for the US. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said mediation is welcome and that President Trump decides the terms. An Iranian plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz fully over seven days is still being passed through mediators.
Oil keeps flowing, at a cost. Kpler says Middle East exports have risen above 24 million barrels a day, up from 23.3 million before the war, since Saudi Arabia and the UAE are sending more crude through pipelines that skip Hormuz. The International Energy Agency says shippers are paying for it in higher freight and war-risk insurance.
A Hyderabad man was among the dead in the earlier Riyadh airport attack, and the Indian Embassy said 11 Indians were hurt. Local outlets in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh report that relatives of workers in Saudi Arabia are anxious and calling home more than usual.
GACA hasn't said whether Dammam is operating normally.
