ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday reaffirmed its “full support and solidarity” with Saudi Arabia after a Houthi drone attack on King Abdullah airport in Jazan injured 16 people.
In a statement, Foreign Office spokesperson said: “Pakistan strongly condemns the drone attack launched by the Houthis to target King Abdullah airport in Jazan, which caused several injuries. We wish a speedy recovery to those injured in the attack.”
Pakistan stated that “such attacks” were not just a violation of international law but also “threaten peace and security” of Saudi Arabia and the region. Islamabad also called for an “immediate cessation” of such attacks.
“Pakistan reaffirms its full support and solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against any threats to its security and territorial integrity,” the statement concluded.
Sixteen people, including foreigners, were injured in Saudi Arabia when the kingdom destroyed a drone launched against an airport by Yemeni rebels, the Saudi-led coalition said. It is the second airport attack in less than two weeks blamed on, or claimed by, the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents.
The rebels regularly launch attacks against Saudi Arabia which has for seven years led the military coalition which intervened to support Yemen’s government in the face of Houthi advances.
“A drone launched in the direction of King Abdullah Airport in Jazan was destroyed, with debris falling inside the airport,” the coalition said, as reported by the official Saudi Press Agency.
‘Indiscriminate’
The latest Houthi drone attack came while the United Arab Emirates, another coalition member, hosts a defence conference focussed on drones. The UAE and its allies warned at the conference on Sunday of the rising threat of drone attacks, as Middle East militants rapidly acquire a taste for the cheap and easily accessible unmanned systems.
Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations, which has repeatedly warned that aid agencies are running out of funds.
The UN has estimated the war killed 377,000 people by the end of 2021, both directly and indirectly through hunger and disease.
On Monday Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that “following bombing” overnight in Hajjah province, its team in the emergency room of Abs general hospital “received a 12-year-old girl and a 50-year-old woman, both dead on arrival”. They also received “10 wounded civilians, most of them women and children, including one pregnant woman.”
