Attack on Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd airport kills two people
The Houthis say they targeted the airport, Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry and an Aramco facility.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) says that the number of people killed in an attack on King Fahd International Airport in the eastern city of Dammam has risen to two – a Saudi national and an Indian resident.
The GACA said in a statement on Thursday that eight people were wounded in Wednesday’s attack and that operations at the airport had resumed and air traffic had returned to normal.
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Separately on Wednesday, two people were killed after Saudi air defences intercepted a drone that was attempting to hit a facility at Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield, the Ministry of Energy said.
The attack are the latest in a series of assaults on Saudi infrastructure as conflict intensifies between the Houthis, an armed group also known as Ansar Allah (Arabic for Supporters of God), and the Saudi-backed internationally recognised Yemeni government.
Last week, the kingdom reported that a projectile strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on October 11 killed one person and injured 11. On October 10, the civil aviation authority reported that a separate attack on the same airport killed 12 people and injured more than 300.
Houthis claim attack on Saudi airports, Aramco facility
The Houthis on Thursday claimed to have carried out numerous attacks on Saudi infrastructure over the last 48 hours, including targeting King Fahd International Airport. Other targets included Abha International Airport, the Saudi defence ministry in Riyadh and facilities belonging to Saudi Aramco in Yanbu, according to the Houthis.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed group, meanwhile, said four drones had been intercepted and destroyed in the regions of Riyadh and Medina.
Reuters and AFP cited sources as saying Saudi Aramco had ordered staff to evacuate from its headquarters in Dhahran, which was hit by a Houthi attack earlier in the month.
The reported evacuation came a day after the US State Department ordered diplomats and family members to depart from its missions in Saudi Arabia. There were also plans to withdraw family members from a number of other US missions in the region, US officials told Reuters.
The US embassy in Riyadh had issued a security alert on Wednesday about possible further attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia.
