Two Killed in Attack on Airport in Eastern Saudi Arabia, Bangladeshi among the Injured
Two people were killed and eight others injured in an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday evening, the kingdom's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has said.
Those killed were a Saudi citizen and an Indian resident. The injured include Saudi, Indian, Yemeni, Bangladeshi and Nepalese nationals, authorities said. The presence of a Bangladeshi national among the injured makes the incident a matter of concern for the families of Bangladeshi expatriate workers as well.
The GACA did not say what type of attack occurred. However, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement has repeatedly targeted the kingdom's airports with drones and missiles, so suspicion is again falling in that direction.
Earlier on Wednesday, two people were killed by debris from a drone that was intercepted over Eastern Province, the Saudi energy ministry said. According to the ministry, the drone was intercepted as it attempted to target a processing facility owned by the state oil company Aramco in the Shaybeh oil field, where a contractor's vehicle was set ablaze. The two killed in the morning were residents from the Philippines and Nepal.
The Saudi-led coalition, which supports the Yemeni government in its war against the Houthis, said another four drones were also intercepted on Wednesday night.
There was no immediate comment from the Houthis. In the past, however, they have said they are attacking Saudi airports, energy facilities and military bases in retaliation for deadly Saudi air strikes on the territory they control in western Yemen.
According to Saudi authorities, at least 21 people have been killed in Houthi attacks on Saudi airports since the start of October. The deadliest of these was a missile strike on Riyadh's international airport on 10 October, which killed 13 people and injured 308 others — the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.
The Houthis' military spokesman said on Wednesday that they had targeted military equipment at an airport in the southern Yemeni city of al-Mukalla, which he said had been transported by Saudi Arabia for use by pro-government forces.
Houthi-run media reported that at least six people had been killed and 11 injured in air and artillery strikes over the previous 24 hours. According to the Houthi-run health ministry, 155 civilians have been killed since Yemen's civil war flared up three months ago; the government's health ministry puts the toll for the same period at at least 1,574. The UN says more than 256,000 people have also been displaced.
The war began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally recognised government from the capital, Sanaa. The conflict escalated the next year, after a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened in an attempt to restore the government's rule.
A four-year-old informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea. They say they are retaliating for what they call a Saudi blockade of their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blame on the kingdom.
The conflict escalated in September after the Houthis seized part of Yemen's south-western Red Sea coast near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint for global shipping. Their advance contributed to a rise in oil prices following six months of war between the US, Israel and Iran.
Earlier this month, pro-government forces said they had regained control of territory overlooking Bab al-Mandab after launching a counter-offensive with Saudi air support. However, fierce fighting is continuing there, as well as around the besieged government-controlled city of Taiz, and to the north in Marib, al-Jawf, Dhale and Shabwa provinces. The Dammam attack is the latest chapter of that widening conflict, whose consequences are now reaching ordinary airport passengers and expatriate workers.
