US evacuates non-essential personnel from Saudi Arabia
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Vanguard
The United States has ordered non-essential embassy staff in Saudi Arabia and their families to leave the kingdom after several Houthi attacks on the country. The measure applies only to Saudi Arabia and aims in particular to protect staff amid strikes on airports and energy facilities, spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.
The United States has ordered non-essential government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said on Wednesday 21 October. Washington justified the measure by citing repeated attacks by the Houthis, Iran-backed Yemeni rebels, according to a message Pigott posted on X.
Saudi Arabia has faced almost daily attacks this month, including a strike on Riyadh International Airport described as the deadliest in the kingdom in several years. On Wednesday, falling debris after a drone targeting an oil facility was intercepted killed two people, a Filipino and a Nepalese national, and injured two others, the Saudi Energy Ministry said. It did not identify who was behind the attack on the Shaybah oilfield, near the border with the United Arab Emirates. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, for its part, said it had intercepted six drones that same day.
The families of US diplomats were also reportedly ordered to leave the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain, according to a diplomatic source cited by AFP. Tommy Pigott said, however, that the order confirmed by the State Department applied only to Saudi Arabia. The United Kingdom has also deployed Typhoon aircraft to defend the kingdom (UK deploys Typhoon aircraft to defend Saudi Arabia).
The civil war in Yemen, which began in 2014, intensified after a four-year truce collapsed in June. The Saudi-led coalition has supported Yemen’s internationally recognised government since 2015.
Summary produced with the help of artificial intelligence tools, under AFREEQUE’s editorial responsibility.
