Pinoy killed in Saudi drone attack
A Filipino was killed in an intercepted drone strike in Saudi Arabia, the country’s Ministry of Energy reported on Thursday.
It said in a statement that a drone attempting to hit a Shaybah oil field was intercepted, killing two people and wounding two more.
“An official source at the Ministry of Energy stated that Saudi air defences intercepted a drone attempting to target a processing facility at Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oil field in the Eastern Province on Wednesday morning,” the Ministry of Energy said.
“The attempted attack resulted in the deaths of two individuals, a Filipino and a Nepali, and injuries of two others, a Pakistani and an Indian, due to falling debris following the interception,” it added, citing an unnamed source.
Apart from the casualties, a contractor’s vehicle was also set ablaze during the incident.
Verification ongoing
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration said it has yet to verify the reported death of the Filipino in coordination with the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh.
Meanwhile, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac confirmed that no Filipinos were injured in the most recent attack at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
On Wednesday evening, an attack was launched on the airport, leaving one person dead and eight others injured, according to the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority.
“No Filipinos were reported injured [at King Fahd International Airport] and we are continuing to monitor the situation,” Cacdac said in a dzMM radio interview on Thursday.
The same airport was previously attacked in a wave of Houthi missile strikes targeting airports in Saudi Arabia, but the Yemeni rebel group has not claimed the Wednesday night attack as of writing.
Seven Filipinos were wounded when a Houthis-claimed missile hit the same airport on Oct. 11.
Three of the seven were in critical condition and placed in the intensive care unit (ICU), but two have since been transferred to regular wards, with “improving conditions,” according to the DMW.
As of Oct. 20, the third injured Filipino still remains in the ICU.
