Washington pulls non-emergency staff
The US State Department has instructed non-emergency government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia to depart, according to a department spokesperson. The spokesperson said Iranian-backed Houthi forces have stepped up hostilities against the kingdom, striking civilian airports and other critical infrastructure, causing civilian casualties and serious disruption to travel. The same statement cautioned that the fighting could intensify quickly.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
The order marks a reduction in the American civilian presence in the kingdom and comes as several outlets reported that Washington was also scaling back its military footprint in the Middle East. It follows a month of mounting cross-border violence between Yemen's Houthis and Saudi Arabia.[S1][S8]
Deadly strikes on airports and oil sites
According to Saudi officials, falling debris from a drone that was brought down while it headed toward an oil field left two people dead. The site involved was Shaybah, located close to the UAE border. The energy ministry gave no indication of who sent the drone, and two additional people were wounded in the incident.[S1]
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A separate strike at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam killed one person, while officials said eight others suffered injuries ranging from minor to serious. No further details of that attack have been released. Airports across the kingdom have been repeatedly targeted by Houthi forces in recent weeks, and a strike on Riyadh's international airport was described as the deadliest in the country in years.[S1]
How the conflict unravelled
Yemen's civil war began in 2014, when the Houthis pushed the government out of the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened the following year to try to restore the government. An informal ceasefire held for roughly four years before collapsing in July, when the Houthis declared a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia and began firing missiles and drones at Saudi airports, oil installations and tankers in the Red Sea.[S1]
The Houthis have described their campaign as retaliation for what they call a Saudi blockade of their territory and for an air strike on Sanaa airport that they attribute to the kingdom. Their embargo in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, off Yemen's south-western coast, has contributed to a jump in world oil prices, because Saudi Arabia had come to depend on the Red Sea for exports after the US and Israel's war with Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz.[S1]
