DFA checking on Pinoys in Saudi following foiled missile attack

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is currently checking whether there were Filipinos among those reported wounded in Saudi Arabia after debris from an intercepted ballistic missile fell on a residential area in Najran. (File Photo: Ed Badajos/Facebook)

MANILA — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is currently checking whether there were Filipinos among those reported wounded in Saudi Arabia after debris from an intercepted ballistic missile fell on a residential area in Najran.

The Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah said the missile, which was fired from Yemen, was successfully intercepted and destroyed by the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces around 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Consul General Edgar Badajos said the debris from the missile fell on a residential area, causing minor injuries to 23 persons on the ground.

Conflict in Yemen escalated in 2015 when an international coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened at the request of Yemen’s President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi against opposition forces.

The country, which hosts almost a million Filipino workers, has repeatedly been targeted by Houthi rebels fighting the coalition supporting Hadi.

Last March, Saudi forces shot down several ballistic missiles but two Egyptians on the ground were killed by falling debris.

According to latest figures from the DFA, there are 374,495 Filipinos in Riyadh; 7,850 in Najran; and 15,700 in Jizan, Saudi Arabia. Najran, where shrapnel from the missile fell, is located southwest of the Kingdom near its border with Yemen.