King Fahd airport in Dammam attacked; one killed, eight injured

King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, the largest airport in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, was attacked on the evening of Wednesday 21 October 2026. Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation announced early on Thursday that one person was killed and eight were injured in the attack and that the material damage is being assessed.

The civil aviation authority gave no details about the type of weapon or the nationalities of the victims, and some reports have put the death toll at two. In the same hours, the coalition supporting Yemen's legitimate government said it had intercepted seven drones launched towards Saudi territory, including towards the Medina region, and attributed the intercepted drones to the Houthis, the Islamic Republic's allies in Yemen. Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki announced early on Thursday the interception and destruction of four more drones over the Eastern Province. At the time this report was published, no group had formally claimed responsibility for the attack on Dammam airport.

Second deadly attack in the Eastern Province in one day

The attack on Dammam airport came a few hours after a drone attack on the Shaybah oil field. Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said debris from an intercepted drone that had targeted the Shaybah processing facility killed two workers, a Filipino and a Nepali, and injured two others; according to the ministry, operations at the facility were not halted. After that attack, the US State Department ordered non-essential government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia (DIAR's earlier report).

King Fahd airport had also been attacked earlier, on 11 October, and the Houthis had claimed responsibility. In the same days, missile and drone attacks on King Khalid airport in Riyadh killed at least 12 people in a single strike on the passenger terminal alone.

The Houthis, the Islamic Republic's arm in the war on its neighbours

In recent weeks the Houthis have expanded their attacks on Saudi Arabia in step with the tension in the Strait of Hormuz, and Riyadh has accused the Islamic Republic of encouraging them. Britain has sent Typhoon fighter jets to defend Saudi airspace (DIAR's report on the Typhoon deployment), and a Houthi missile attack on a camp in Shabwa, Yemen, took the lives of 73 young men (DIAR's report).

The attack on King Fahd airport in Dammam was the second deadly attack in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province in less than a day.