Oman following Yemen escalation with "great concern" -Omani media

Oman is following with "great concern the military escalation" in Yemen's war as well as a missile strike on Saudi Arabia's Abha airport, the Oman TV News website said on Friday, citing a Foreign Ministry source.

The missile attack by Yemen's Houthi forces on the Abha civilian airport, in the south of the kingdom, wounded 26 people on Wednesday, according to the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Yemeni group. "The sultanate urges (the parties) to avoid escalation (..) and to focus in the next phase on the political process" to end the war in Yemen, the source said.

Oman TV News also issued a statement from the Gulf country's marine security centre saying it had dispatched two navy vessels and a reconnaissance plane to help in efforts to rescue the two tankers targeted in the Gulf of Oman. The United States blamed Iran for Thursday's attacks, which drove up oil prices and stoked fears of a new U.S.-Iranian confrontation, although Tehran denied the accusation.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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