Israel Reports Aerial Attack on Eilat, Iraq Group Claims Launch

An Israeli navy patrol boat sails in the Red Sea, in Israel's southern Red Sea resort city of Eilat on December 26, 2023 (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
An Israeli navy patrol boat sails in the Red Sea, in Israel's southern Red Sea resort city of Eilat on December 26, 2023 (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
TT

Israel Reports Aerial Attack on Eilat, Iraq Group Claims Launch

An Israeli navy patrol boat sails in the Red Sea, in Israel's southern Red Sea resort city of Eilat on December 26, 2023 (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
An Israeli navy patrol boat sails in the Red Sea, in Israel's southern Red Sea resort city of Eilat on December 26, 2023 (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

Israel's Red Sea port city of Eilat came under an aerial attack on Monday that caused no casualties, the military said, and an Iranian-backed armed group in Iraq issued a claim of responsibility.

The military's statement said a flying object launched from east of Israel had struck a building in Eilat. It did not elaborate on the object or the provenance. Sirens went off in the city but there was no interception by air defenses, it said.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said in a statement that it had attacked a "vital objective" in Israel "using appropriate weapons". It did not offer further details.

Eilat has come under repeated missile and drone attack from the Iranian-aligned Houthis in Yemen during Israel's almost six-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza. In November, Israel said a group in Syria had launched a drone that hit the port city.



Syrian Security Forces Search for Militants Who Refuse to Turn in Their Weapons

Weapons and ammunition handed over by members of Bashar Assad regime security forces are collected by members of the new government, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Weapons and ammunition handed over by members of Bashar Assad regime security forces are collected by members of the new government, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
TT

Syrian Security Forces Search for Militants Who Refuse to Turn in Their Weapons

Weapons and ammunition handed over by members of Bashar Assad regime security forces are collected by members of the new government, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Weapons and ammunition handed over by members of Bashar Assad regime security forces are collected by members of the new government, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

The forces together with armed vehicles were deployed in the city of Homs Thursday to look for the militants affiliated with ousted President Bashar Assad, state media reported.
SANA, citing a military official, said that the new de facto authorities led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group had set up centers in Syria’s third-largest city for former soldiers and militants to hand over their weapons, similar to other parts of Syria.
In early December, a lightning insurgency took out the decades-long rule of Assad in less than two weeks. HTS has since run much of war-torn Syria under the authority of its leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, The Associated Press said.
Officials who were part of Assad's notorious web of intelligence and security apparatus have been arrested over the past few weeks.