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How a Jordanian’s Work Trip to Moscow Ended in Death on the Front

Russian soldiers are seen in southeastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
Russian soldiers are seen in southeastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
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How a Jordanian’s Work Trip to Moscow Ended in Death on the Front

Russian soldiers are seen in southeastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
Russian soldiers are seen in southeastern Ukraine. (Reuters)

The eldest son of Raed Ramzi Sabir Hammad – one of two Jordanians killed after being recruited by the Russian army – revealed the shocking account of his father’s journey to Moscow that ended up with him dying as a soldier in the Russian military.

Asharq Al-Awsat spoke to Hammad’s son, Awwab, soon after the Jordanian Foreign Ministry called on citizens to inform it about any attempts to recruit them to the Russian army.

Awwab told Asharq Al-Awsat that his father had departed to Moscow in August after being hired for an administrative position in the Russian Defense Ministry.

Days later, he informed his family that he had been deployed to the front to fight against Ukraine. All contact with him was lost at the end of the same month.

Awwab said his father, 54, had never served in the Jordanian military and that he has a background in engineering. After recently being out of a job, he sought employment abroad in a domain that matches his experience.

He revealed that his father applied for an administrative job in Russia that was posted on the Telegram app. Soon after landing the position, he flew from Amman to Moscow before shortly being recruited as a soldier to be deployed to the Ukrainian front.

The father informed the family of the deployment but did not explain how he was transferred from a civilian post to a military one, continued Awwab. His contact with the family gradually decreased and came to a complete stop on August 25.

Awwab said the family reached out to the Jordanian Foreign Ministry to help locate his father. They were informed of his death on September 25. The search was then on to find out how his was killed and to locate his corpse so that he could be buried in Jordan.

Awwab revealed that several members of his family had also flown to Moscow after receiving job offers through Telegram. He suspected that some 400 Jordanians had fallen for these online “scams”.

The consular affairs department in the Jordanian Foreign Ministry revealed on Thursday that two citizens had been killed after being recruited to join the Russian army.

In a statement, it said it was closely probing how Jordanians were being lured to join the foreign battlefronts and illegally being recruited to foreign armies in violation of Jordanian and international law.

It urged citizens to be wary of attempts to recruit them to the Russian army, while also demanding Russian authorities to cease such behavior.

Hundreds of Jordanians live in Russia and over 20,000 had pursued an education at universities and institutes in Russia and former Soviet states, according to unofficial data, reported AFP.

At the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, then Russian Defense Minister Sergi Shoigu revealed that some 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East were ready to fight alongside Moscow’s forces. Reports at the time said that some 2,000 Syrian regime soldiers had headed to Russia to join the front.

In November, AFP found many Iraqis are being lured to fight for Russia by seemingly irresistible offers pushed by influencers on social media.

They include a monthly salary of $2,800 -- four times what they could earn in the military at home -- and a sign-up fee of up to $20,000 to set them up in life.

A Russian passport, insurance and pension also come as part of the package, they are told, as well as compensation in case of injury.

Similar methods have been used to recruit young men from Central Asia, India, Bangladesh and Nepal, AFP reporters have found, as well as from Cuba.

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Where Does Israel’s Destruction of Underground Hezbollah Base Leave the Group?

Destroyed stones on the top of Ali al-Taher ridge, which Israeli forces captured after fighting with Hezbollah and where the Israeli military said it blew up a network of Hezbollah tunnels Thursday night near Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (AP)
Destroyed stones on the top of Ali al-Taher ridge, which Israeli forces captured after fighting with Hezbollah and where the Israeli military said it blew up a network of Hezbollah tunnels Thursday night near Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (AP)
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Where Does Israel’s Destruction of Underground Hezbollah Base Leave the Group?

Destroyed stones on the top of Ali al-Taher ridge, which Israeli forces captured after fighting with Hezbollah and where the Israeli military said it blew up a network of Hezbollah tunnels Thursday night near Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (AP)
Destroyed stones on the top of Ali al-Taher ridge, which Israeli forces captured after fighting with Hezbollah and where the Israeli military said it blew up a network of Hezbollah tunnels Thursday night near Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (AP)

Israel's demolition on Thursday of a tunnel network used by Hezbollah as a command center in southern Lebanon, near the border, represents a significant setback for the Iran-backed group.

Experts said that while Hezbollah is far from defeated, the group was now exposed after two fierce wars with Israel in which it suffered major blows including the loss of much of its top leadership and Israel's occupation of parts of southern Lebanon.

- How big of a blow is it? -

A week after capturing the site, the Israeli military on Thursday demolished the tunnels in the Ali al-Taher ridge with huge explosions. The United States Geological Survey reported a 4.1 magnitude tremor in the area.

Hezbollah never acknowledged losing the strategic highland, which lies around 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border with Israel and overlooks the major city of Nabatieh.

The Israeli military previously said that the network comprised tunnels containing dozens of Iranian-made rockets, missiles and drones, as well as other weapons.

Experts say the tunnels, built over two decades, connected a network of villages in the area, and that the Israeli military now had easy access to Nabatieh, where Hezbollah holds sway.

"This is a major loss, they cannot make another (headquarters) like it for decades to come," Khalil Gemayel, a retired Lebanese general told AFP.

"Hezbollah is now exposed in the area around the ridge," he added.

Reacting to the tunnels' destruction on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said: "Now there is a strong security zone, stronger than ever before, which protects the communities from attack and direct fire, and enables us to maintain control and threaten Hezbollah deep inside the area".

- Is Hezbollah militarily defeated? -

While a significant moment, Gemayel believed that "losing Ali al-Taher does not mean Hezbollah is broken".

Israel occupies a swathe of southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah built a now-dismantled network of tunnels near the border.

The group still maintains its major positions in Iqlim al-Tuffah -- a higher-altitude part of the south further away from Israel -- in the Jezzine highlands elsewhere in the south and in the Bekaa region in Lebanon's east and northeast.

"The facilities present in Iqlim al-Tuffah are bigger than (Ali al-Taher)," according to Gemayel.

But Hezbollah no longer has a weapons supply route through Syria, where the new authorities there are hostile to the group.

Military expert Hassan Jouni also said that "the fact that Hezbollah did not carry out a major operation in Ali al-Taher to defend it is a sign of weakness".

Hezbollah has not claimed any attacks on Israel and its troops since June 20 while Lebanon reports regular, sometimes deadly Israeli strikes despite a months-long truce.

Israel has accused the group of attacks on its troops in that time.

- Where does the group stand now? -

Hezbollah twice sparked wars with Israel in recent years, the first time with its attacks in support of Hamas during the Gaza war, and the second in March in support of Iran.

Jouni said that while "Hezbollah lost a solid, fortified defensive base" when Israel took Ali al-Taher, "it is not a devastating setback".

"It has gone through unprecedented setbacks before the issue of Ali al-Taher, especially with the assassinations and the (Israeli army)'s ability to occupy a vast area" of southern Lebanon, he said.

During these wars, Hezbollah lost several of its top commanders, including its former chief, while an Israeli operation in September 2024 saw hundreds of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies explode, paralyzing the group's communication systems while killing dozens and wounding thousands.

More than 8,900 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since 2023, according to Lebanon's health ministry. Hezbollah does not disclose how many fighters it has lost, but most people killed in the war have been adult men.

On top of these setbacks, Hezbollah is also dealing with a Lebanese president and prime minister who have vowed to disarm it.

The group's weapons have long been a point of contention in the country, with critics accusing it of using them to support Iran's regional agenda to the detriment of Lebanon.

Hezbollah is also facing some scrutiny from its core support base, the Shiite community.

In online petitions posted earlier this month, hundreds of Lebanese public figures, including legal experts and human rights advocates, called for Lebanon's army to be deployed in Nabatieh and Tyre, two of southern Lebanon's largest cities.

"This city does not belong to any political group," said the signatories in the Nabatieh petition, referring to Hezbollah.

Features

Fall of Mokha Leaves Humanitarian Crisis in Its Wake, Threatens Shipping

The Houthi escalation has forced thousands of Yemeni families to flee their homes. (AFP)
The Houthi escalation has forced thousands of Yemeni families to flee their homes. (AFP)
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Fall of Mokha Leaves Humanitarian Crisis in Its Wake, Threatens Shipping

The Houthi escalation has forced thousands of Yemeni families to flee their homes. (AFP)
The Houthi escalation has forced thousands of Yemeni families to flee their homes. (AFP)

Those who had not fled the southwestern Yemeni coastal city of Mokha awoke Thursday to a grim military and humanitarian reality after the Houthi group seized full control of the city and its strategic port and extended its reach toward the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

As military developments accelerate, threatening international shipping, the humanitarian crisis is worsening, pushing tens of thousands of civilians to the brink.

With little time to consider their options, thousands of civilians in western Taiz and southern Hodeidah were forced to flee after the Houthis carried out raids and arrests in villages and communities they had entered, amid fears of reprisals and reports of looting targeting residents and their property.

Mokha endured a night of panic after residents and wounded fighters were told to evacuate their homes and flee following the Houthis’ announcement that they had seized the Khalid camp and Jabal al-Nar, east of the city. Houthi forces also continued advancing through the Mawza district, which borders the coastal strip to the east, making the city’s encirclement from all sides appear only a matter of time.

Warnings broadcast over loudspeakers and radio communications triggered widespread panic during the first hours of the night and continued into the morning.

Residents described harrowing scenes of thousands of families fleeing villages and areas in western Taiz and southern Hodeidah, some on foot and others in cars or on motorcycles. Some took whatever livestock and possessions they could save.

They told Asharq Al-Awsat that, for many families, displacement was not planned but an urgent flight from fear, forcing them to leave behind their homes, land and livelihoods.

Those unable to leave found themselves trapped amid fear and uncertainty as raids and arrests continued, according to residents, alongside reports of looting and theft.

Confusion and flight

Human rights activist Amina Mohammed told Asharq Al-Awsat that she was preparing dinner for her family when they learned of warnings to evacuate the city.

The news threw everyone in the house into confusion. Initially unable to believe the warnings, they went outside to check and were confronted by scenes of panic, with hundreds of people of all ages running south.

Mohammed and her family immediately returned home, gathered whatever belongings they could and joined the exodus. By sunrise, they had reached Yemen’s interim capital, Aden. The road between Mokha and Aden remained heavily congested until late Thursday.

Medical sources, who fled after the Houthi takeover, said armed fighters stormed hospitals and health facilities as soon as they took control of the city. They detained wounded patients and began questioning them as suspected fighters in an effort to obtain military information.

The fighters also searched records and documents and ordered administrative staff to disclose patients’ medical information.

The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that doctors, nurses and other hospital workers were also detained and questioned, prompting many medical personnel, who were not on duty during the raids, to flee the city.

The Houthis also carried out a wave of arrests in streets, homes, shops and public facilities, prompting most remaining residents to stay indoors.

Humanitarian shock

Mohammed al-Zaghrouri was saying goodbye to the manager of his new motorcycle spare-parts shop, which he had opened only weeks earlier, and preparing to spend the evening with friends he had met since arriving in Mokha. The manager was heading home to spend the night with his family.

Suddenly, both men changed course and headed for Aden.

Al-Zaghrouri told Asharq Al-Awsat that they were stunned by the sight of frightened residents running through the streets. Within seconds, they realized they too had to join them.

They rushed back to the shop to retrieve whatever cash and small valuables they could carry. Within hours, al-Zaghrouri was driving out of the city with the manager and his family, lamenting the effort and money they had left behind.

Mokha’s fall was more than a military shift. It dealt a severe humanitarian blow reflected in immediate UN assessments.

According to the United Nations Population Fund, escalating fighting in Taiz and along Yemen’s West Coast displaced about 40,000 people. The International Organization for Migration said the sharp escalation had forced more than 18,500 people to flee within days, with the numbers rising by the hour.

The IOM also warned of dangerous “secondary displacement” affecting families that had previously settled in camps in districts, including Hays and Mawza, only to find themselves fleeing fighting once again.

Field reports by rights groups indicated that those escaping faced extremely harsh conditions, with more than 100 families forced to spend the night among rocky outcrops and rugged mountain areas in western rural Taiz without basic necessities.

The displacement coincided with stringent Houthi restrictions that prevented some residents in combat zones from leaving, amid accusations that civilians were being used as human shields.

Pledge to counter terrorist threats

As displacement continues, families who have fled need safety, shelter, food, water and fuel, as well as protection and assistance in reuniting relatives separated during their escape, particularly children and older people.

Separately, local authorities in the interim capital, Aden, and the governorates of Abyan and Lahj issued a joint statement saying the armed forces had overcome the initial shock and confusion, regained their balance and were fully prepared to confront any challenges.

The statement cited broad popular support and public momentum to confront the Houthis and thwart the ambitions of the “Iranian project in the region.”

The authorities said they continued to monitor security conditions and public services, while state institutions remained operational. They pledged to counter terrorist threats, protect citizens and property, and preserve security and stability in coordination with the relevant government, security and military bodies.

They urged residents to remain calm and vigilant, disregard rumors, obtain information from official sources, cooperate with the relevant authorities and report any suspicious movements or activities.

Features

'Second Life': Nepal Tunnel Survivor Recalls Ordeal

A man carrying his belongings walks past a damaged house in the aftermath of flash floods at Trishuli in Nepal's Nuwakot district on September 11, 2026. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
A man carrying his belongings walks past a damaged house in the aftermath of flash floods at Trishuli in Nepal's Nuwakot district on September 11, 2026. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
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'Second Life': Nepal Tunnel Survivor Recalls Ordeal

A man carrying his belongings walks past a damaged house in the aftermath of flash floods at Trishuli in Nepal's Nuwakot district on September 11, 2026. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
A man carrying his belongings walks past a damaged house in the aftermath of flash floods at Trishuli in Nepal's Nuwakot district on September 11, 2026. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)

For 10 days, Nepali hydropower worker Sanjay Sah survived in darkness inside a flooded tunnel, drinking muddy water and losing all sense of time as he desperately prayed for rescue.

When a disaster response team finally pulled him to safety on September 4, Sah's first question showed how deeply the ordeal had disoriented him, said AFP.

"When I was rescued I first asked, how many days has it been?" Sah, 30, told AFP in an interview, while on his way back home in Saptari district Sunday.

"He said that it has been 10 days. I thought it had been just a few days."

Sah was among hundreds of workers at a series of hydropower projects hit by the catastrophic August 26 flood, triggered by a glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border.

Sah's extraordinary survival was a rare ray of hope after a disaster that killed at least 1,429 people and left more than 5,640 missing, the majority in Nepal.

Struggling to hold back tears as friends and family welcomed him with garlands and a cake, Sah recalled how the disaster struck with stunning speed.

"I was on duty, and then suddenly an unthinkable flood hit us, with tsunami-like waves that were several meters tall," he said.

Workers had received warnings that floodwaters were approaching, but did not get enough time to escape, he said.

"We did get information to stay alert, that a big flood is coming. As much as possible, we tried to be alert and evacuate our friends," Sah said.

"But the water did not give us much time... we shut down everything, and tried to rescue and evacuate our friends."

Within minutes, however, the tunnel was engulfed by raging waters.

The sheer scale of the flood was unlike anything witnesses had seen before, with the government pointing the finger at the dire impact of rising global temperatures on Nepal's Himalayan mountains.

- 'Divine energy' -

Separated from his colleagues, Sah found himself stranded with little idea whether anyone would ever reach him.

His Hindu faith helped carry him through the days of darkness and isolation.

"I survived because of my deep belief and confidence," he said.

"I was chanting Maha Mantra (Hindu prayers), and the divine energy I received because of that allowed me to not be scared or despair," he said.

"I was able to stay there."

With no clean water to drink, he survived on whatever he could find.

"There was water, but it was muddy," he said. "I only had that."

The darkness and isolation might have been overwhelming, but Sah was not entirely alone.

Another trapped worker, Kabir Maharjan, 45, had survived nearby.

"We were separated but speaking to each other."

The ability to hear another human voice offered a lifeline to Sah.

Eventually, after days of excavation and painstaking rescue efforts, search teams broke through to the trapped men and brought them out alive.

Sah's wife, Lakshmi Kumari Sah, said she never gave up hope of seeing her husband again.

"God has helped us, we had our hopes," she said, holding her daughter in her arms.

Sah, who spent several days recuperating in a Kathmandu hospital, says he has mixed emotions.

"I am happy, but I feel sad too," he said. "I was able to get a second life, to survive there. But many of our friends were there."

As rescuers continue searching through the tunnels, Sah urged authorities not to abandon the effort.

One Chinese worker was rescued on September 5, the day after Sah -- but no signs of life have been heard since.

"I hope the government continues its search and rescue. It is possible there might still be someone alive," he said.

"Or they will be able to find bodies of friends who have passed away and hand them over to their families."