Two people were killed and eight others injured in an attack on an airport in Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday evening, the kingdom’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) says.
Those killed at King Fahd International Airport were a Saudi citizen and an Indian resident, while the injured were Saudi, Indian, Yemeni, Bangladeshi and Nepalese nationals.
The GACA did not say what type of attack occurred, but Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement has repeatedly targeted the kingdom’s airports with drones and missiles.
On Wednesday morning, two people were killed by debris from a drone that was intercepted over Eastern Province, where Dammam is located, the Saudi energy ministry said.
The ministry said the drone was intercepted as it attempted to target a processing facility owned by Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Aramco in the Shaybeh oil field, where a contractor’s vehicle was set ablaze.
It identified the dead as residents from the Philippines and Nepal.
Another four drones were also intercepted on Wednesday night, according to the Saudi-led coalition that is supporting the Yemeni government in its war against the Houthis.
There was no immediate comment from the Houthis, but they have previously 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.
At least 21 people have been killed in Houthi attacks on Saudi airports since the start of October, according to Saudi authorities.
One missile strike on Riyadh’s international airport on 10 October 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 it said had been transported by Saudi Arabia for use by pro-government forces.
Meanwhile, 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 devastating civil war flared up three months ago.
The government’s health ministry has said at least 1,574 people have been killed in the conflict over the same period.
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 the 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.
The Houthis said they were retaliating for what they call a Saudi blockade of their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed 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.
By BBC News
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