2 Filipinos injured in Riyadh airport attack
Two Filipinos were hurt in the Oct. 10 attack on the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Migrant Workers Sec. Leo Cacdac said.
"As of 11 a.m. today, Philippine time, two Filipinos are in Riyadh hospital ICUs, recovering from their injuries as a result of yesterday's attacks[,]" he said. "Our MWO-OWWA teams are monitoring their situation."
Cacdac added that no Filipino casualties were reported.
On Saturday, the deadliest attack in more than a decade in the kingdom occurred without warning, leaving 12 people dead and more than 300 wounded in a major escalation of the war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis.
In a statement, the kingdom said that the dead included a mix of nationalities, including four from Saudi Arabia, two from Bangladesh, and one each from Palestine, the US, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Sudan.
Two previous attacks on the airport in the past week resulted in the deaths of four people and heavy damage to a Saudi commercial plane parked on a tarmac.
The Saudis and the Houthis began fighting in 2015 when the kingdom entered Yemen's civil war on behalf of the internationally recognized government.
Relative calm after a 2022 ceasefire ended in July when the Houthis resumed attacks, saying the Saudis fired on the Sanaa airport as a plane from Iran was trying to land. That revived anger over the Saudi-led blockade that has largely isolated Houthi-run areas.
Now, fighting has escalated, with the Saudi-led coalition providing air support for Yemeni government forces attempting to reverse recent Houthi gains along the Red Sea. Those gains gave the rebels better surveillance of shipping on a corridor that is a crucial alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been attacking ships.
The Houthis warned global airlines "for the last time" about the potential consequences of operating in Saudi airspace, which they described as a theater for their military operations. (with reports from Christine Boton / Philippine STAR, Associated Press)