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Kidnapped Police Officer Freed in Yemen’s Taiz

A pro-government soldier stands guard at a historical site in the northern city of Marib, Yemen November 3, 2017. (Reuters)
A pro-government soldier stands guard at a historical site in the northern city of Marib, Yemen November 3, 2017. (Reuters)
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Kidnapped Police Officer Freed in Yemen’s Taiz

A pro-government soldier stands guard at a historical site in the northern city of Marib, Yemen November 3, 2017. (Reuters)
A pro-government soldier stands guard at a historical site in the northern city of Marib, Yemen November 3, 2017. (Reuters)

Local Yemeni authorities in the coastal governorate of Taiz announced that a police officer, who was kidnapped over a week ago, was released.

Provincial military police said it was handed back Brigadier General Jamal al-Shamiri, who was abducted by an outlawed group en route to performing the Umrah pilgrimage in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

During his time as a hostage, Shamiri was taken to an unknown location.

Separately, fierce clashes continue to rattle Yemen’s southern Ad Dali’, Lahij and Qa’atabah districts.

Yemeni army forces and the popular resistance, backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, advanced towards a number of towns and outposts held by the Iran-backed Houthi militias.

“Houthis continue to carry out criminal acts by turning citizens’ homes and residential neighborhoods into militia hideouts, in an attempt to impede the progress of pro-government forces towards the Ibb governorate,” the pro-government Giants Brigades said in statement.

Arab coalition fighter jets pounded Sunday morning a number of militia targets west of Ad Dali’, killing and injuring a number of Houthi militiamen and destroying armored vehicles operated by the coupists.

In the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, the militants continued to scale up offensives in blatant violation of the UN-sponsored ceasefire in place.

Locals reported militants targeting civilian neighborhoods in southern Hodeidah with rocket and sniper fire.

In the Tahita region, Houthi militants opened assault rifle and sniper fire, injuring a young Yemeni girl named Malak Abdo Musseib.

According to her father, she was shot in the head by sniper fire while playing next to her home.

Musseib, 8, was taken to a hospital in the interim capital Aden in very critical condition to receive treatment for her life-threatening injuries.

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Arab World

Egypt Urges Int’l Support for Lebanese Army to Ensure State Exclusivity over Arms

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty (3rd L) speaks before representatives of participating countries during the preparatory meeting for the international conference in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in Cairo on February 24, 2026. (AFP)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty (3rd L) speaks before representatives of participating countries during the preparatory meeting for the international conference in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in Cairo on February 24, 2026. (AFP)
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Egypt Urges Int’l Support for Lebanese Army to Ensure State Exclusivity over Arms

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty (3rd L) speaks before representatives of participating countries during the preparatory meeting for the international conference in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in Cairo on February 24, 2026. (AFP)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty (3rd L) speaks before representatives of participating countries during the preparatory meeting for the international conference in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in Cairo on February 24, 2026. (AFP)

Egypt on Tuesday urged the international community to better support Lebanon's armed forces to ensure that all weapons in the country come under the exclusive authority of the state.

Speaking at a preparatory meeting in Cairo ahead of next month's Paris conference in support of the Lebanese army, Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty praised "the success of the Lebanese army in completing the first phase of the plan".

"This achievement reflects the efficiency of the military institution and requires intensifying international support to complete the remaining phases of the plan," Abdelatty said.

Last year, Lebanon's government committed to disarming Hezbollah, which was severely weakened in its recent war with Israel, and tasked the army with drafting a plan to implement the decision.

In January, and in line with the 2024 truce, the army announced it had completed the first phase of the disarmament plan, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.

Abdelatty said that Tuesday's meeting aimed "to enable the Lebanese state to ensure that all weapons are held exclusively by the state".

The meeting brought together Lebanon's top security chiefs, including Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal and Internal Security Forces Director-General Major General Raed Abdallah.

They were joined by representatives of the Quintet Committee on Lebanon, among them Qatar's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, the French President's personal envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian and Saudi Arabia's envoy to Beirut Prince Yazid bin Farhan, along with senior officials from the United States.

The second phase of the plan focuses on the area between the Litani and Awali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.

Hezbollah has so far refused to hand over its weapons north of the Litani.

The government said last week that the army would need at least four months to implement the plan's second phase to disarm Hezbollah in the country's south,

Arab World

About 6.5 Million People in Somalia Face Acute Hunger Due to Drought, Govt and UN Say

Lime is displayed for sale at an open-air grocery market as Muslims start the fasting month of Ramadan within Bakara market in Mogadishu, Somalia February 18, 2026. (Reuters)
Lime is displayed for sale at an open-air grocery market as Muslims start the fasting month of Ramadan within Bakara market in Mogadishu, Somalia February 18, 2026. (Reuters)
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About 6.5 Million People in Somalia Face Acute Hunger Due to Drought, Govt and UN Say

Lime is displayed for sale at an open-air grocery market as Muslims start the fasting month of Ramadan within Bakara market in Mogadishu, Somalia February 18, 2026. (Reuters)
Lime is displayed for sale at an open-air grocery market as Muslims start the fasting month of Ramadan within Bakara market in Mogadishu, Somalia February 18, 2026. (Reuters)

About 6.5 million people in Somalia ‌face acute hunger due to drought, the government and the United Nations said on Tuesday, sounding the alarm days after the UN's food agency warned that food aid could grind to a halt by April without new funding.

Somalia declared a national drought emergency in November after years of failed rains, and other countries in the region have also been hit.

More than a third of those facing acute malnutrition are children, Somalia's government and the United Nations Somalia said in a joint statement. The crisis has forced tens of thousands of ‌people to ‌flee their homes, with many crowding into camps ‌in ⁠Mogadishu and other ⁠cities.

"The drought ... has deepened alarmingly, with soaring water prices, limited food supplies, dying livestock, and very little humanitarian funding," George Conway, the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said in a statement.

Hawo Abdi said she lost two children to illness after the drought laid waste to her homeland in Somalia's Bay region.

"When I saw that the suffering ⁠was getting worse, I fled my home and ‌came to ... Mogadishu," she told Reuters ‌from her shelter on the outskirts of the capital.

Last week, the UN World Food Program put the number of those facing acute hunger ‌at 4.4 million, and said it had already cut back its assistance to just over 600,000 people from 2.2 million earlier this year.

It was not clear whether the new figure reflected a sharp increase in those ‌at risk or different counting methods.

The government and United Nations figures tally with those also released on ⁠Tuesday by ⁠the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which sets the global standard for determining the severity of a food crisis.

While rainfall in the April to June season could offer some relief, some 5.5 million people were expected to remain in the crisis level or worse, with 1.6 million people in the emergency level, the statement said.

Abdiyo Ali was forced to abandon her farm in the Lower Shabelle region.

"Our farms were destroyed, our livestock died, and water sources became too far away. We have nothing left to bring with us," Ali told Reuters last week while preparing her food in a displaced people's camp outside Mogadishu.

Arab World

Lebanon Fears Israeli Strikes if Iran Situation Escalates

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi addresses the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP)
Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi addresses the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP)
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Lebanon Fears Israeli Strikes if Iran Situation Escalates

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi addresses the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP)
Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi addresses the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP)

Lebanon's foreign minister said Tuesday his country feared its infrastructure could be hit by Israeli strikes if the situation with Iran escalates, as Israel has intensified its attacks on Tehran-backed Hezbollah.

Also on Tuesday, Lebanon's army accused the Israeli military of firing near a position it was setting up in the country's south, saying it had instructed troops to return fire.

"There are signs that the Israelis could strike very hard in the event of an escalation, potentially including strategic infrastructure such as the airport," foreign minister Youssef Raggi told reporters in Geneva.

His comments came amid a massive US military buildup in the Middle East that suggested Washington was prepared to wage a potentially sustained campaign against Iran.

Iran vowed on Monday to retaliate "ferociously" against any attack from the United States, and repeated its warning of a regional conflagration in response to President Donald Trump's latest threat of strikes.

"We are currently conducting diplomatic efforts to request that, even in the event of retaliation, Lebanese civilian infrastructure not be targeted," Raggi said.

He stressed that his country's leadership had been very clear: "This war does not concern us."

A Lebanese official who requested anonymity said "what the Lebanese fear is a chain reaction: an American strike against Iran, a Hezbollah retaliatory strike against Israel, followed by a massive Israeli response."

- Israeli strikes -

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah, usually saying it was targeting the group.

Last Friday, Israel carried out deadly strikes on what it called Hezbollah positions in eastern Lebanon and targets linked to the Palestinian group Hamas in the south.

Hezbollah said Saturday that eight of its fighters had been killed, and vowed "resistance".

Its leader Sheikh Naim Qassem stated last month that any attack on Tehran would also be an attack on Hezbollah.

On Monday, Washington ordered non-emergency personnel to leave its embassy in Lebanon's capital Beirut as anticipation rose of a possible conflict with Iran.

On Tuesday, Lebanon's army said it was "establishing a new observation post on the southern border" when "the area surrounding the post was subjected to gunfire from the Israeli side".

"The army command issued orders to reinforce the post, remain there, and return fire."

On the same day in Cairo, a preparatory meeting was held ahead of a conference in Paris next month to back Lebanon's army, which is facing heavy pressure from Washington and Israel to disarm Hezbollah.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said that Tuesday's meeting aimed "to enable the Lebanese state to ensure that all weapons are held exclusively by the state".

Lebanon's government last year committed to disarming Hezbollah, which was badly weakened in a recent war with Israel, and tasked the army with drawing up a plan to do so.

The army, which has limited capabilities, declared in January the completion of the first phase of its plan near the border with Israel.

It said last week it would need at least four months to complete the second phase.

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient.