King Fahd airport attack leaves one dead and eight injured in Saudi Arabia

An attack on King Fahd International Airport in the eastern Saudi city of Dammam has left one resident dead and eight others injured, the country's civil aviation authority said early on Thursday.

The General Authority of Civil Aviation said the wounded suffered injuries ranging from minor to critical and were taken immediately to nearby hospitals. The late-Wednesday strike caused material damage inside the airport complex, prompting global tracking monitor Flightradar24 to report incoming flights being diverted away from the Persian Gulf hub.

Saudi authorities have not formally named the group behind the airport attack, and Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement has not commented. The Saudi-led military coalition said air defence systems intercepted four drones across the Eastern Region during the incident.

Wave of strikes hits aviation and energy infrastructure

The airport assault followed an attack earlier on Wednesday at Saudi Aramco's Shaybah oil facility in the south-east of the country. In that incident, debris from an intercepted drone killed two workers — a Nepali and a Filipino national — and injured two others, who are Indian and Pakistani citizens, the Saudi Ministry of Energy said. The falling wreckage also ignited a blaze in a contractor's vehicle.

Gulf civilian facilities have faced mounting projectile assaults over the past fortnight.

Diplomatic missions order staff departures

The deteriorating regional security environment prompted swift diplomatic precautions. Late on Wednesday, the US State Department ordered non-emergency diplomats and families of government personnel to depart missions across Saudi Arabia.

The American embassy in Riyadh also published an emergency advisory warning citizens of potential follow-on strikes directed at transport hubs and commercial energy installations across the kingdom.

For India, regional stability across the Gulf remains an immediate strategic concern. Millions of Indian expatriates live and work across Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Gulf states, while the region supplies a substantial share of India's crude imports. Indian consular officials in Saudi Arabia monitor developments closely following any incident involving foreign workers, particularly after an Indian citizen sustained injuries during the Shaybah facility strike earlier the same day.

Air traffic operations at Dammam began gradual recovery after emergency protocols cleared runways, though civil aviation authorities have not indicated when terminal repairs will finish.