An attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, in eastern Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday evening injured eight people and caused material damage, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said early on Thursday, adding in its first announcement that one Saudi resident had been killed, according to Reuters and the Associated Press.
Casualty Toll Was Updated During Thursday
The first toll released overnight was one person killed and eight injured. Reuters reported that formulation on Wednesday, citing the General Authority of Civil Aviation, known as GACA, and the Associated Press carried the same early account from Riyadh, identifying the person killed as a Saudi resident.
Later on Thursday, GACA updated the toll. Al Jazeera reported that the authority said the number killed had risen to two, a Saudi national and an Indian resident, while the number injured remained eight. Arab News carried the same updated identification, quoting GACA as saying: “The deceased are a Saudi citizen and a resident of Indian nationality.”
Because the figures changed during the day, the distinction matters. The one-death figure was the authority’s early Thursday announcement, reported by Reuters and the Associated Press. The two-death figure was the authority’s later update, reported by Al Jazeera, Arab News and Reuters in its Thursday market coverage. This article uses that later update as the most recent verified toll, while retaining the early figure to explain how the story developed.
GACA said the eight injured people included one Saudi citizen, two residents each of Indian, Yemeni and Bangladeshi nationality, and one resident of Nepalese nationality, according to Arab News. Their injuries ranged from minor to severe, and they were taken to hospitals for treatment. The Indian Embassy in Riyadh said on Thursday that one Indian national was among the two people killed and that two Indian nationals were among the injured. In a statement quoted by the Indian Express, the embassy said it was ascertaining further details and contacting the affected families.
Authorities did not specify the nature of the attack in their first statements, and they did not say in those statements who had carried it out. The Associated Press reported that the Iranian-backed Houthis had not commented on this attack at that stage. The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted four drone attacks in the Eastern Region, according to the same Associated Press report. Anadolu Agency, cited by Malay Mail, reported a coalition announcement that five drones launched toward the kingdom on Wednesday had been intercepted and destroyed, including in the Eastern Province and the Medina region.
Flights Diverted, Then Operations Resumed
Flight operations were disrupted overnight. Global flight-tracking service Flightradar24 said on X that flights had been diverted away from the airport, according to the Associated Press. That diversion was the clearest immediate sign for travellers that the airport could not operate normally while damage was assessed and security checks were carried out.
By Thursday, the position had changed. Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said operations at King Fahd International Airport had resumed and air traffic had returned to normal, according to Arab News. The Jerusalem Post, reporting Reuters information, also noted on Thursday morning that flight operations had resumed at the airport. Ajel English likewise reported that GACA had announced the resumption of operations, with air traffic returning to normal after Wednesday evening’s attack.
GACA said work was continuing with security agencies to assess the damage and to take measures needed for the safety of passengers and staff. It did not, in the reports available on Thursday, publish a detailed list of individual cancelled or diverted flights. Travellers using Dammam should therefore treat the resumption statement as an airport-level update and check their own flight status with their airline, because a return to normal air traffic does not by itself confirm that every scheduled service is operating on time.
King Fahd International Airport serves Dammam and the wider Eastern Province, on the Gulf coast near Bahrain and Qatar, and it is an important gateway for a region that includes major Saudi energy facilities. The airport had been attacked previously during the recent wave of strikes. Al Jazeera and Anadolu reporting noted an earlier attack on October 11, after which damage assessments and safety inspections were carried out.
Background: A Wider Wave of Airport and Energy Attacks
Wednesday’s attack was not an isolated incident. Earlier the same day, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said debris from an intercepted drone killed two people and injured two others at a facility operated by Saudi Aramco at the Shaybah oil field in the southeast of the kingdom. The ministry said the two people killed there were Nepali and Filipino nationals, while the injured were Pakistani and Indian nationals. Debris sparked a fire in a contractor’s vehicle, but operations at the oil field were not affected, according to the ministry statement reported by the Associated Press.
Last month, debris from an intercepted Houthi drone killed a Yemeni resident of Saudi Arabia. The Associated Press described that death as the first civilian casualty since the Houthis increased their attacks against the kingdom, targeting Saudi shipping and oil facilities. Earlier this month, a limited fire also broke out in an administrative building at an Aramco facility in the Eastern Province after it was targeted, the ministry said at the time.
The pattern has extended to the capital. Attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on October 10 and October 11 killed 13 people in total and injured more than 300, according to figures broken down by Al Jazeera from civil aviation reporting. That airport had been closed since October 10 and resumed only limited operations on Wednesday, Associated Press reporting said. Against that background, the Dammam attack increased concern that civilian airports across the kingdom, not only in Riyadh, remain exposed.
Late on Wednesday, the United States ordered non-emergency government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia after the series of attacks. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Iranian-supported Houthis had increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and critical infrastructure, causing casualties and severe travel disruptions. The United States Embassy in Riyadh also issued a security alert about possible further Houthi attacks, according to Al Jazeera.
What Happens Next
Saudi officials said damage assessment and safety work at King Fahd International Airport would continue even though operations and air traffic had returned to normal on Thursday. The situation is still developing. Further updates may clarify the nature of the attack, the condition of the eight injured people and whether any flights remain affected. The wider question is security: if attacks on Saudi airports continue, airlines and aviation authorities will have to decide route by route and airport by airport whether normal operations can be sustained. For now, GACA’s latest public position is that Dammam airport is operating again, while the investigation and assessment continue.
