(Eagle News) — The Philippine government has condemned the spate of attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport which killed one on July 23, and on Tuesday injured nine others.
“The Philippine government hopes for the speedy recovery of those injured and expresses its sympathy to the family of the single fatality during the attack,” a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
“In view of the continuous rise in tensions within the region, the Philippine government once again reiterates its call to all parties to exercise calm, patience and restraint, and resolve differences through peaceful dialogue and consultations to prevent further
regrettable incidents from occurring,” it added.
The statement was issued before the most recent attack Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia is the largest hirer of Overseas Filipino Workers. The country has the largest Filipino population in the Middle East.
As of December 2014 data, OFWs in Saudi Arabia already numbered about one million.
A Yemeni rebel attack on the Abha airport killed a Syrian national and wounded 21 other civilians Tuesday, a Riyadh-led coalition said, in a new escalation following a series of strikes on the site.
The attack on Abha airport, which the coalition said left a McDonalds outlet at the site littered with shattered glass and damaged 18 vehicles, comes amid spiralling regional tensions with Iran.
The escalation of attacks by Iran-aligned Huthi rebels on Saudi cities threatens a hard-won UN-sponsored ceasefire deal for the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, war-ravaged Yemen’s main conduit for humanitarian aid.
“A terrorist attack by the Iran-backed Huthi militia on Abha airport… killed a Syrian resident and wounded 21 civilians,” the coalition said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The wounded — from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India and Bangladesh — also included three women and two children who had been taken to hospital for treatment, the coalition said.
It did not provide details on how the airport was attacked, but Iran-aligned Huthi rebels have repeatedly struck the civilian facility this month with drones and missiles.
Earlier on Sunday, the rebels’ Al-Masirah TV said they had targeted Abha and Jizan airports in the south of the kingdom with drones.
The coalition did not confirm the attack on Jizan airport.
Abha airport authorities said on Twitter that air traffic had resumed and operatons were running normally, without saying how long they were disrupted.
On June 12, a rebel missile attack on Abha airport wounded 26 civilians, drawing promises of “stern action” from the coalition.
Human Rights Watch denounced the strike as an apparent “war crime”, urging the Huthis to immediately stop all attacks on civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
The latest raids come amid spiralling regional tensions after Washington — a key ally of Riyadh — accused Iran of shooting down a US drone and carrying out attacks on oil tankers in the strategic Gulf of Oman.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the US, in a joint statement published on Saudi state media on Sunday, voiced alarm over escalating regional tensions and the “dangers posed by Iranian destabilising activity”.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying sophisticated weapons to Huthi rebels, a charge Tehran denies.
(with a report from Agence France Presse)
