Saudi Arabia, Arab world condemn deadly attack on Bahrain soldiers

CAIRO: An attack on Saudi Arabia territory, blamed on the Houthis, that killed two Bahraini military personnel near the southern border with Yemen has been widely condemned.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry voiced its “condemnation and denunciation” of Monday’s “treacherous attack on the defense force of the Kingdom of Bahrain stationed on the southern border of the Kingdom, which resulted in the martyrdom of a number of its brave soldiers and the injury of others,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia stands by Bahrain and renews its stance of rejection to the continued flow of weapons to the terrorist Houthi militia as well as calls to ban arms export to Yemeni territories,” it said.

Bahrain’s military command said a drone attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed the two Bahraini soldiers — one of them an officer — at Saudi Arabia’s southern border early Monday. The soldiers had been patrolling the area.

The military’s statement, carried by the state-run Bahrain News Agency, said “a number” of Bahraini soldiers were also wounded in the strike, without elaborating.

“This terrorist attack was carried out by the Houthis, who sent aircraft targeting the position of the Bahraini guards on the southern border of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia despite the halt of military operations between the warring sides in Yemen,” the statement said.

Egypt called for “concerted regional and international efforts to confront terrorism in all its forms and to put an end to practices that aim to destabilize the sisterly Arab countries.”

Condemning the “heinous terrorist attack carried out by the Houthi group” Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said the country “extends its sincere condolences and sympathy to the sisterly Kingdom of Bahrain, its leadership and people, and to the families of the victims in this great tragedy,” wishing the injured a speedy recovery.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation sent its condolences to the families of the two individuals killed, and to the government and citizens of Bahrain.

Hussein Ibrahim Taha, the OIC’s secretary-general, said such provocative actions were incompatible with ongoing diplomatic efforts to resolve the Yemen crisis. 

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit condemned the “continuation of the treacherous Houthi attacks despite the legitimate government’s commitment to the truce and ceasefire.”

He held “the Houthi side responsible for the continued suffering of Yemenis,” and said that the militia “stubbornly rejects all calls for peace and insists on continuing the violence and sabotage.”

The bodies of the fallen servicemen arrived on Monday at the Isa Air Base on board a Royal Bahraini Air Force aircraft, the Bahrain New Agency said.

Field Marshal Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa, commander-in-chief of the Bahrain Defense Force, received the bodies of Lt. Mubarak Hashel Zayed Al-Kubaisi and Cpl. Yaqoub Rahmat Moulai Mohammed.

Hopes for peace were boosted in March when Saudi Arabia struck a rapprochement deal with Iran, which has backed the Houthis.

The following month, Mohammed Al-Jaber, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, traveled to Sanaa to meet Houthi officials in what he described as a bid to “stabilize” last year’s truce.

Last week, Houthi officials completed five days of talks in Riyadh, the first public visit by a Houthi delegation to Saudi Arabia since hostilities broke out.