Aramco evacuates remaining HQ staff, sources say

Saudi Aramco told remaining staff to evacuate from its headquarters in Dhahran on Thursday, two sources briefed on the matter told AFP, as Saudi Arabia faces weeks of Houthi attacks.

Three sources said non-essential staff had already been working remotely since the eastern Saudi headquarters was hit last week. Two of them said the remaining employees were now told to work from home until further notice. One source said no specific reason was given for the evacuation order.

The sources said residential areas in the sprawling Aramco complex were not closed or evacuated.

The instruction came hours after a late-night attack on Dammam airport in eastern Saudi Arabia killed two people and injured eight others. Last Wednesday, the Houthis said they had targeted Aramco’s headquarters. Saudi officials said a building was hit in the area housing Aramco’s operations centre.

Two Aramco employees told AFP last week that a tower in the headquarters had been struck, with one saying the “top three floors were gone”. AFP said it had not been granted access to the site and could not independently verify the damage.

Saudi Arabia said Thursday it had intercepted four drones in the areas of Riyadh and Medina. Houthi attacks on Saudi oil and civilian infrastructure have followed the collapse in July of a years-long truce in Yemen’s civil war.