The United States orders non emergency embassy staff and their families out of Saudi Arabia, as a drone attack on an oil field kills two workers

The order covers Saudi Arabia only. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott confirmed the ordered departure on Wednesday for non emergency government employees and their family members in the kingdom, and he called a Reuters report that Washington was preparing departures across the Gulf inaccurate. A diplomatic source told Agence France Presse that families of embassy staff in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain had also been told to leave. Pigott said the order applies to Saudi Arabia only, and that the safety of department personnel and their families is the highest priority. Asked about the reports at the White House on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he did not know that such an order was coming. "I don't know that they are. You are telling me something. I wouldn't know that," he said.

The day had already shown why the order came. Saudi air defenses intercepted a drone aimed at Saudi Aramco's Shaybah oil field in the Eastern Province on Wednesday, and debris from the interception fell on the facility. The energy ministry said two workers were killed, a Filipino and a Nepali, and two others were injured. The Saudi led coalition in Yemen said it intercepted at least seven drones on Wednesday, among them drones over the Medina area and the eastern region. The United States embassy in Saudi Arabia issued a security alert the same day warning of further Houthi attacks.

The Houthis have attacked Saudi Arabia on a near daily basis since early October. A strike on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on October 10 was the deadliest of the campaign, and airports, oil facilities and other infrastructure have been hit again and again since. In Yemen itself, a Houthi strike on a government training camp in Shabwa killed 73 people, a toll reported on Wednesday. A four year truce in Yemen's civil war collapsed in June, and the fighting has spread well beyond Yemen's borders since.

Washington is helping the kingdom defend itself and has so far stopped short of striking the Houthis directly. The United States has stepped up intelligence and targeting support for Saudi air defenses, CNN reported, while Saudi Arabia has pressed for more offensive help and Trump has decided against American strikes on the Houthis. Britain confirmed on Tuesday that Royal Air Force Typhoon jets will fly defensive patrols over Saudi cities, and Egypt has pledged the kingdom its support. The picture with this story is an illustration.