US Withdraws Troops and Diplomats as Aramco Evacuates Dhahran HQ

The simultaneous reduction of American military and civilian presence alongside an evacuation at Saudi Arabia's largest oil facility signals a coordinated response to a deteriorating regional...

The United States military has begun scaling back its troop deployment across the Middle East, following a State Department order directing non-essential personnel to depart the American embassy in Saudi Arabia, according to Al Bawaba. The drawdown is occurring in parallel with an evacuation of staff at Aramco's headquarters in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, as reported separately by Al Bawaba citing two sources from an AFP dispatch.

The State Department's non-essential personnel order for the Saudi embassy preceded the military's troop reduction, establishing a sequence in which civilian diplomatic staff were moved first. The specific number of military personnel being withdrawn and the timeline for their departure have not been publicly disclosed by the Pentagon as of October 22, 2026.

The Aramco evacuation at Dhahran was confirmed by two sources cited by AFP, as relayed by Al Bawaba. The reason for the evacuation order was not officially detailed by Aramco or Saudi authorities. Al Bawaba reported that the move is possibly linked to escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthi group, though no official confirmation of that specific connection has been issued.

Four people were killed in two separate Houthi attacks inside Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, October 22, 2026, according to Al Bawaba. The General Authority of Civil Aviation in Riyadh confirmed that one Saudi citizen and one resident were among those killed in at least one of those incidents. The details of the second attack and the identities of the remaining victims have not been publicly confirmed as of the time of publication.

The US military's stated rationale for the troop reduction, as reported by Al Bawaba, is to reduce the number of potential targets available for Iran to strike. The report draws a direct procedural parallel to a similar drawdown conducted before the start of what Al Bawaba described as the Iran war in February 2026. The Congressional Times has not independently verified the full scope of that earlier conflict or its current status.

Dhahran is the location of Aramco's global headquarters and sits in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, the center of the country's oil production infrastructure. An evacuation of that facility, if sustained or followed by operational disruptions, would carry significant implications for global oil supply. Whether production or export operations at Dhahran have been affected has not been confirmed by Aramco or the Saudi government.

Houthi forces, based in Yemen and aligned with Iran, have conducted periodic strikes on Saudi territory since the beginning of the Yemen conflict in 2015. Attacks on Saudi civilian and infrastructure targets, including airports and oil facilities, have occurred in multiple phases of that conflict. The current uptick in attacks, resulting in four confirmed deaths on a single day, represents a notable intensification within the most recent period of hostilities.

The convergence of the US personnel drawdown, the Aramco staff evacuation, and the confirmed Houthi strikes within the same 24-hour window has not been formally linked by any government statement. What would clarify the relationship between these events is an official explanation from the US Department of Defense, the State Department, Saudi Aramco, or the Saudi Ministry of Defense, none of which had issued such a statement as of publication.

What remains unknown includes the full operational status of Aramco's Dhahran facility, the total number of US military personnel being withdrawn and from which bases, whether the embassy non-essential personnel order extends to other US embassies in the region beyond Saudi Arabia, and the precise targets of the two Houthi attacks that resulted in the four fatalities confirmed on October 22, 2026.