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Yemen: Army Regains Control of Line Linking Taiz, Hodeidah

A boy looks at dust raising from the site of air strikes in Saada, Yemen February 27, 2018. REUTERS/Naif Rahma
A boy looks at dust raising from the site of air strikes in Saada, Yemen February 27, 2018. REUTERS/Naif Rahma
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Yemen: Army Regains Control of Line Linking Taiz, Hodeidah

A boy looks at dust raising from the site of air strikes in Saada, Yemen February 27, 2018. REUTERS/Naif Rahma
A boy looks at dust raising from the site of air strikes in Saada, Yemen February 27, 2018. REUTERS/Naif Rahma

Yemeni legitimate forces have continued to advance on the west coast of Yemen towards the center of Hodeidah as the national army forces gained control over the line linking Taiz with the port city.

Taiz axis media center announced the army forces advanced on al-Anin front in Habashi mountain after heavy fighting with Houthi militias. The statement confirmed the army forces in the 17th Infantry Brigade, backed by the  Coalition to Restore Legitimacy, managed to control the fortress and village of Karash, Tabbah Jabari, al-Sadd, and the village of Qaba in Ramada.

According to the statement, army troops took control of several areas west of Taiz, killing a number of Houthis, including a sniper, without specifying the toll.

Meanwhile, battles continued on the southern front of Hodeidah, west of Yemen, between the army forces backed by the Arab coalition and Houthi militants.

Hodeidah deputy governor Walid al-Qadhmi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the battle has entered the second phase after the completion of the first stage which ended with a 98 percent success rate.

Qadhmi stressed that the joint forces have been able to neutralize several cities and villages, indicating that al-Garahi directorate and al-Husseiniya city were almost cleared of militias.

The deputy governor explained that the second stage aims to cut off the route of Baajal Directorate from Sanaa, which links Houthis with fighters from all regions.

Qadhmi stressed that Hodeidah "will be fully liberated, especially that many people in the province are ready to fight as troops approach the outskirts of the city."

The National Army and Popular Resistance regained control of al-Husseiniya area after violent clashes in which several insurgents were killed and injured, a military source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The source also indicated that the forces wrested control of al-Jah lower neighborhood in the Bayt al-Faqih directorate, al-Taif area and its historical castle in Drehami. He said that the Coalition air force targeted a number of insurgent sites south of Hodeidah, which resulted in the death and injury of a number of insurgents, including Houthi commander Hefd Allah al-Shami who was targeted in a farm in al-Jah area.

According to the website of the National Army "September.Net", Hefd Allah is the son of Houthi leader Abdul Qadir al-Shami, number 40 on the coalition's wanted list.

At least 13 Houthi militants were detained and two of their combat vehicles were destroyed as they launched failed infiltration attempts into army-controlled positions in Hays district south of Hodeidah, indicated the source.

The National Army foiled a surprise Houthi attack on the eastern gate of Sanaa in al-Jubair mountain, Tabbah al-Hamra and a number of sites on Nahm front. The forces killed and injured several Houthis and detained others.

In al-Jawf, the National Army went ahead in its battles and liberated a number of strategic sites controlled by the Houthis west of the province, killing and injuring dozens.

In related news, coalition Air Defenses monitored the launch of a ballistic missile fired by the Iran-backed Houthi militias from inside Yemeni territories towards Saudi Arabia.

Spokesman for the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen Col. Turki al-Maliki explained that the missile was heading towards the city of Jazan and was deliberately launched to target civilian and populated areas.

The Saudi Royal Air Defense Forces were able to intercept and destroy the missile which resulted in shattered fragments over residential districts without causing any injuries.

Maliki added "this hostile act by the Iran-backed Houthi militias proves the continuing involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting the Houthi militias equipped with qualitative capabilities in a flagrant and explicit violation of the two UN Resolutions No. 2216 and 2231 aiming to threaten the security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as the regional and international security."

Launching ballistic missiles towards densely populated cities and villages is in violation of international humanitarian law.

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Arab World

Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited heavily damaged towns near the Israeli border on Saturday, pledging reconstruction.

It was his first trip to the southern border area since the army said it finished disarming Hezbollah there, in January.

Swathes of south Lebanon's border areas remain in ruins and largely deserted more than a year after a US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire sought to end hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Lebanon's government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of its plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.

Visiting Tayr Harfa, around three kilometers from the border, and nearby Yarine, Salam said frontier towns and villages had suffered "a true catastrophe".

He vowed authorities would begin key projects including restoring roads, communications networks and water in the two towns.

Locals gathered on the rubble of buildings to greet Salam and the delegation of accompanying officials in nearby Dhayra, some waving Lebanese flags.

In a meeting in Bint Jbeil, further east, with officials including lawmakers from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, Salam said authorities would "rehabilitate 32 kilometers of roads, reconnect the severed communications network, repair water infrastructure" and power lines in the district.

Last year, the World Bank announced it had approved $250 million to support Lebanon's post-war reconstruction, after estimating that it would cost around $11 billion in total.

Salam said funds including from the World Bank would be used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

The second phase of the government's disarmament plan for Hezbollah concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes on what it usually says are Hezbollah targets and maintains troops in five south Lebanon areas.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel of seeking to prevent reconstruction in the heavily damaged south with repeated strikes on bulldozers, excavators and prefabricated houses.

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday said the reform of Lebanon's banking system needed to precede international funding for reconstruction efforts.

The French diplomat met Lebanon's army chief Rodolphe Haykal on Saturday, the military said.

Arab World

Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
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Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Iraq has so far received 2,225 ISIS group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.

They are among up to 7,000 ISIS detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at "ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities".

Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF's role in confronting ISIS had come to an end.

Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister's office, told AFP on Saturday that "Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition", which Washington has led since 2014 to fight IS.

He said they are being held in "strict, regular detention centers".

A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the "continued transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition".

On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.

- Iraq calls for repatriation -

ISIS seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.

Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the extremists.

In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offences.

Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.

On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military's operation.

In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said "the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist ISIS organization before the competent Iraqi courts".

Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.

Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.

Maan noted that "the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed".

Arab World

Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said.

The attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The vehicle transported displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area of North Kordofan, the doctors’ group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants, the group said.

The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

It created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes. It fueled disease outbreaks and pushed parts of the country into famine.