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Russian Jets Harass US, French Aircraft over Syria

French Rafale plane. Photo: French military
French Rafale plane. Photo: French military
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Russian Jets Harass US, French Aircraft over Syria

French Rafale plane. Photo: French military
French Rafale plane. Photo: French military

Russian fighter jets flew dangerously close to several US drone aircraft over Syria again Thursday, setting off flares and forcing the MQ-9 Reapers to take evasive maneuvers, the Air Force said.

It was the second time in 24 hours that Russia has harassed US drones there.

“We urge Russian forces in Syria to cease this reckless behavior and adhere to the standards of behavior expected of a professional air force so we can resume our focus on the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, head of US Air Forces Central Command, said in a statement.

Col. Michael Andrews, Air Forces Central Command spokesman, said “the Russian harassment, including close fly-bys, by one SU-34 and one SU-35 and deploying flares directly into the MQ-9, lasted almost an hour. So it wasn’t a quick fly-by, but much more of a sustained and unprofessional interaction.”

US Air Forces Central released videos of the two separate incidents that took place Wednesday and Thursday. In the first incident, which took place about 10:40 a.m. local time Wednesday in Northwest Syria, Russian SU-35 fighters closed in on a Reaper, and one of the Russian pilots moved their aircraft in front of a drone and engaged the SU-35’s afterburner, which greatly increases its speed and air pressure.

The jet blast from the afterburner can potentially damage the Reaper’s electronics, and Grynkewich said it reduced the drone operator’s ability to safely operate the aircraft.

Later a number of the so-called parachute flares moved into the drone's flight path. The flares are attached to parachutes.

In the second incident, which took place over Northwest Syria around 9:30 a.m. Thursday local time, “Russian aircraft dropped flares in front of the drones and flew dangerously close, endangering the safety of all aircraft involved,” Grynkewich said.

The drones were not armed with weapons and are commonly used for reconnaissance missions.

Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, head of US Central Command, said in a statement that Russia's violation of ongoing efforts to clear the airspace over Syria "increases the risk of escalation or miscalculation.”

The French military also said that two of its fighter jets on patrol over the Iraq-Syria border area were forced to maneuver “to control the risk of accident” involving a Russian Sukhoi SU-35 warplane on Thursday.

The Russian aircraft had engaged in “non-professional interaction” with two of France’s Rafale planes deployed to the region as part of “Operation Chammal”, which seeks to contain ISIS group in Iraq and Syria, the French military said.

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Arab World

Report: Hezbollah Readies for New Regional War with Funds from Iran

17 April 2026, Lebanon, Jiyyeh: A displaced Lebanese woman flashes the victory sign and displays Hezbollah and Iranian flags as they drive along the highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon in the Jiyyeh area. (dpa)
17 April 2026, Lebanon, Jiyyeh: A displaced Lebanese woman flashes the victory sign and displays Hezbollah and Iranian flags as they drive along the highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon in the Jiyyeh area. (dpa)
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Report: Hezbollah Readies for New Regional War with Funds from Iran

17 April 2026, Lebanon, Jiyyeh: A displaced Lebanese woman flashes the victory sign and displays Hezbollah and Iranian flags as they drive along the highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon in the Jiyyeh area. (dpa)
17 April 2026, Lebanon, Jiyyeh: A displaced Lebanese woman flashes the victory sign and displays Hezbollah and Iranian flags as they drive along the highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon in the Jiyyeh area. (dpa)

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has spent three months preparing for a possible resumption of hostilities with Israel, after receiving an infusion of cash from Iran, according to Lebanese security personnel briefed on its activities.

The group, founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982, has been dealt severe blows in two wars with Israel since 2024, with thousands of fighters and many of its leaders killed, and much of its arsenal destroyed.

Invading Israeli forces now occupy its heartland of villages in southern Lebanon, and political pressure has built up in Beirut for its disarmament.

It nevertheless remains committed to fighting Israel and has used a lull in hostilities since June to rearm, with a focus on procuring explosives and producing drones that can be flown into Israeli positions, two Lebanese security sources told ‌Reuters.

One of the ‌sources, and another close to Hezbollah, said the group had received tens of ‌millions ⁠of dollars from ⁠Iran to help boost its military capabilities. That is in addition to around $200 million that the group received from Tehran to aid displaced families in its Shiite heartlands, which Reuters reported earlier this month.

The group has been restoring command-and-control structures that broke down in key battles, according to one of those sources and three other security officials familiar with the group's operations.

In response to questions from Reuters, Hezbollah's media office said Israel's occupation of Lebanese land made any resistance to it a legitimate right. It rejected the suggestion that its command-and-control systems had broken down.

Israel's military declined to comment. Iran's permanent mission to the ⁠United Nations in Geneva did not immediately respond to Reuters questions.

A US State Department ‌spokesman said Washington would keep strangling Hezbollah's finances through sanctions and other measures. ‌A US Treasury spokesperson said Iran was running out of money and ways to move money.

HEZBOLLAH ON ALERT

Hezbollah's effort comes ‌amid continued tensions in the wider Middle Eastern conflict ignited by the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February.

Hezbollah opened ‌fire in support of Iran on March 2, triggering an Israeli offensive that killed more than 4,000 people and uprooted a quarter of Lebanon's population, mostly members of Hezbollah's Shiite constituency.

Hostilities largely abated over the summer as an interim Iran-US deal included a Lebanon ceasefire and Washington mediated talks between Lebanon and Israel. Full-scale hostilities have not resumed in Lebanon despite the collapse of the ‌US-Iranian deal, though Israel continues deadly strikes in the south.

Hezbollah is on alert for a possible US-Iran escalation, potentially reigniting the Lebanon front.

The sources told Reuters the group ⁠had not yet managed ⁠to fully prepare its stockpiles or fighting force.

Hezbollah is still restocking, acknowledging this month that explosives seized by Lebanese authorities belonged to it and were intended for use against Israel. A Hezbollah official and a Lebanese security source told Reuters they were specifically for its explosive drones.

ISRAEL'S REMOTE WARFARE PROVED A CHALLENGE, SOURCES SAY

The group will also need to repair command-and-control capabilities after losses on key fronts, including the flashpoint town of Bint Jbeil and the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge, according to one of the Lebanese sources and three security officials.

They said Hezbollah's tactic of operating in small units and rationing the use of anti-tank rockets left some units isolated on those fronts, struggling to confront Israel's remotely operated systems including weaponized drones and armed remote-controlled vehicles.

The Israeli military told Reuters it uses remotely-operated systems to monitor southern Lebanon and reduce troops' threat exposure.

Hezbollah has not explicitly said whether it would take part in the eruption of fresh hostilities, but its media office said it was wary of giving Israeli leaders any justification to escalate in Lebanon, particularly as the group was concerned about its constituents being displaced once more.

Arab World

‘No Fuel to Keep Babies Warm’: Shortages Push Hospitals in Yemen’s Taiz to Brink

A nurse attends to a newborn baby inside an incubator at a hospital in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen, October 23, 2026. (Reuters)
A nurse attends to a newborn baby inside an incubator at a hospital in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen, October 23, 2026. (Reuters)
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‘No Fuel to Keep Babies Warm’: Shortages Push Hospitals in Yemen’s Taiz to Brink

A nurse attends to a newborn baby inside an incubator at a hospital in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen, October 23, 2026. (Reuters)
A nurse attends to a newborn baby inside an incubator at a hospital in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen, October 23, 2026. (Reuters)

Fuel shortages in Yemen's besieged city of Taiz have forced one hospital to cut the number of incubators it can operate from 40 to 10, putting newborn babies at risk as weeks of fighting choke off vital supplies and deepen a humanitarian crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of people.

"There's no oxygen, there's no fuel to run the incubators, to keep the babies warm," said Nada Ahmed, a nurse in the neonatal unit of the Yemeni-Swedish Hospital for Maternity and Childhood.

Nawal Najeeb, a supervisor in the neonatal unit, warned the facility could be forced to halt operations if fuel supplies do not arrive.

"It will be a catastrophe for the babies, a catastrophe of deaths ‌and disabilities."

Taiz has ‌been largely isolated since October 3, with fighting preventing humanitarian supplies ‌from ⁠entering and civilians from ⁠leaving, following an escalation in clashes between the legitimate government and the Iran-aligned Houthi group.

FUEL PRICES SURGE

Key supply routes, including the Taiz-Aden corridor, have been blocked by Houthi forces, worsening shortages of water, food and fuel. The city hosts nearly half of the 250,000 people displaced by the latest fighting, according to the United Nations.

In Taiz city, 42 health facilities are reporting acute shortages of fuel, oxygen, medicines and medical supplies, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said.

Fuel prices have surged to 2,000 Yemeni rials per liter, driver Abdullah ⁠al-Radfani told Reuters.

Oxfam Yemen's policy, advocacy and media manager, Fatma Jaffar Shotah, ‌described one dialysis patient who has to spend two nights ‌at a healthcare center rather than traveling home between sessions because regular journeys have become unaffordable, the cost ‌rising from half a dollar to around $10.

"Fuel shortage inside the city is having catastrophic impacts ‌on people's lives," she said.

The strain is being felt beyond Taiz. Aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said fuel shortages were causing power outages at hospitals and primary healthcare centers in the southern governorates of Aden and Lahj, affecting operating theatres and intensive care units.

HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION

UN agencies and aid groups also warned of worsening ‌hunger and malnutrition. The World Food Program says that more than 800,000 people have been cut off from food assistance in Taiz and surrounding ⁠areas.

UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires ⁠said 52,000 of the 168,000 children screened in Taiz so far this year are acutely malnourished, including more than 11,500 suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

Although UNICEF has put in place nearly 8,000 cartons of life-saving therapeutic food, enough to sustain treatment services for around three months, Pires warned that worsening insecurity and movement restrictions could hamper future deliveries and prevent families from reaching treatment centers.

MSF said growing displacement was aggravating child malnutrition in southern Yemen, an area which has already faced a long-standing hunger crisis, as families flee fighting in the north and along the west coast.

Between September 15 and October 22, MSF screened 299 children under 5 at its mobile clinics in Aden and Lahj. Forty-four children, or 14.7%, were suffering from moderate acute malnutrition, while 28 children, or 9.4%, were severely malnourished and in need of hospital care.

"In each location we go, on a daily basis, we see at least one or two children who are in severe acute malnutrition," said MSF's mobile health activity manager, Sara Ghanem.

Arab World

Deadly Blast in Car on Syria Highway

Syrian security forces in Aleppo in January. (Reuters)
Syrian security forces in Aleppo in January. (Reuters)
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Deadly Blast in Car on Syria Highway

Syrian security forces in Aleppo in January. (Reuters)
Syrian security forces in Aleppo in January. (Reuters)

An unidentified explosion in a vehicle on Syria's Damascus-Homs highway on Monday caused casualties, state media reported, while a government source told AFP that three people were killed.

State news agency SANA said that "an explosion took place inside a car on the Damascus-Homs road in the Al-Qastal area", adding that emergency workers removed "the bodies of victims", while authorities launched an investigation.

A government source told AFP on condition of anonymity that three people were killed.