Arab Coalition Says over 260 Houthis Killed in Marib Fighting

A fighter loyal to the legitimate Yemeni government mans a position at the Al-Jawba front line facing Iran-backed Houthi militias in the country’s northeastern province of Marib, on October 23, 2021. (AFP)
A fighter loyal to the legitimate Yemeni government mans a position at the Al-Jawba front line facing Iran-backed Houthi militias in the country’s northeastern province of Marib, on October 23, 2021. (AFP)
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Arab Coalition Says over 260 Houthis Killed in Marib Fighting

A fighter loyal to the legitimate Yemeni government mans a position at the Al-Jawba front line facing Iran-backed Houthi militias in the country’s northeastern province of Marib, on October 23, 2021. (AFP)
A fighter loyal to the legitimate Yemeni government mans a position at the Al-Jawba front line facing Iran-backed Houthi militias in the country’s northeastern province of Marib, on October 23, 2021. (AFP)

The Saudi-led Arab coalition said on Sunday its air strikes had killed more than 260 Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen in the past three days.

The deaths are the latest among roughly 1,600 Houthis the coalition claims it has killed in strikes over the past two weeks around Marib.

"Thirty-six military vehicles were destroyed and more than 264" rebel fighters were killed in the past 72 hours, the coalition said, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The strikes were carried out in Al-Jawba, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Marib, and Al-Kassara, 30 kilometers to the northwest.

The UN Security Council called on Wednesday for "de-escalation" in Yemen, in a unanimously adopted statement to counter the risk of "large-scale famine" in the country.

The 15 council members demanded an immediate nationwide ceasefire, and sought an end to the Marib escalation.

Saudi Arabia had proposed a ceasefire initiative early in the year but the Houthis have repeatedly ignored calls for calm and peace.

"The members of the Security Council expressed grave concern for the dire humanitarian situation, including prolonged starvation and the growing risk of large-scale famine," said the Security Council statement.

They also "condemned the recruitment and use of children, and sexual violence, in conflict".

The UN children’s agency UNICEF last week said that seven years of conflict in Yemen had killed or wounded at least 10,000 children.

The figure only included child victims whose fates were known to the organization, and there were countless others, UNICEF spokesman James Elder said in Geneva.

"The war must come to an end," he said.



Germany Deports Man to Syria for First Time Since 2011

People attend a protest against reelection of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad, near Syria's embassy, Berlin, Germany May 26, 2021. (Reuters)
People attend a protest against reelection of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad, near Syria's embassy, Berlin, Germany May 26, 2021. (Reuters)
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Germany Deports Man to Syria for First Time Since 2011

People attend a protest against reelection of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad, near Syria's embassy, Berlin, Germany May 26, 2021. (Reuters)
People attend a protest against reelection of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad, near Syria's embassy, Berlin, Germany May 26, 2021. (Reuters)

Germany deported a man to Syria for the first time since the civil war began in that country in 2011, the interior ministry in Berlin announced on Tuesday.

A Syrian immigrant previously convicted of criminal offences in Germany was flown to Damascus and handed over to Syrian authorities on Tuesday morning, the ministry said.


Army: Lebanese Soldier among Those Killed in Monday Israeli Strike

Lebanese soldiers secure the site of an Israeli drone strike that targeted a truck in the village of Sibline, south of Beirut, on December 16, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
Lebanese soldiers secure the site of an Israeli drone strike that targeted a truck in the village of Sibline, south of Beirut, on December 16, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
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Army: Lebanese Soldier among Those Killed in Monday Israeli Strike

Lebanese soldiers secure the site of an Israeli drone strike that targeted a truck in the village of Sibline, south of Beirut, on December 16, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
Lebanese soldiers secure the site of an Israeli drone strike that targeted a truck in the village of Sibline, south of Beirut, on December 16, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

A Lebanese soldier was among three people killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in the country's south, the army said Tuesday, denying Israeli claims that he was also a Hezbollah operative.

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

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said Monday's strike on a vehicle was carried out by an Israeli drone around 10 kilometers (six miles) from the southern coastal city of Sidon and "killed three people who were inside".

The Lebanese army said on Tuesday that Sergeant Major Ali Abdullah had been killed the previous day "in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a car he was in" near the city of Sidon.

The Israeli army said it had killed three Hezbollah operatives in the strike, adding in a statement on Tuesday that "one of the terrorists eliminated during the strike simultaneously served in the Lebanese intelligence unit".

A Lebanese army official told AFP it was "not true" that the soldier was a Hezbollah member, calling Israel's claim "a pretext" to justify the attack.

Under heavy US pressure and amid fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah, starting with the south.

The Lebanese army plans to complete the group's disarmament south of the Litani River -- about 30 kilometers from the border with Israel -- by year's end.

The latest strike came after Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives on Friday took part in a meeting of the ceasefire monitoring committee for a second time, after holding their first direct talks in decades earlier this month.

The committee comprises representatives from Lebanon, Israel, the United States, France and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

More than 340 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry reports.


Israel Defense Minister Vows to Stay in Gaza, Establish Outposts

Palestinians amid rubble of destroyed buildings in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip (AFP)
Palestinians amid rubble of destroyed buildings in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip (AFP)
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Israel Defense Minister Vows to Stay in Gaza, Establish Outposts

Palestinians amid rubble of destroyed buildings in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip (AFP)
Palestinians amid rubble of destroyed buildings in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip (AFP)

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday vowed Israel will remain in Gaza and pledged to establish outposts in the north of the Palestinian territory, according to a video of a speech published by Israeli media. 

His remarks, reported across Israeli media, come as a fragile US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds in Gaza, said AFP. 

Mediators are pressing for the implementation of the next phases of the truce, which would involve an Israeli withdrawal from the territory. 

Speaking at an event in the Israeli settlement of Beit El in the occupied West Bank, Katz said: "We are deep inside Gaza, and we will never leave Gaza -- there will be no such thing." 

"We are there to protect, to prevent what happened (from happening again)," he added, according to a video published by Israeli news site Ynet. 

Katz also vowed to establish outposts in the north of Gaza in place of settlements that had been evacuated during Israel's unilateral disengagement from the territory in 2005. 

"When the time comes, God willing, we will establish in northern Gaza, Nahal outposts in place of the communities that were uprooted," Katz said, referring to military-agricultural settlements set up by Israeli soldiers. 

"We will do this in the right way and at the appropriate time." 

Katz's remarks were slammed by former minister and chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, who accused the government of "acting against the broad national consensus, during a critical period for Israel's national security." 

"While the government votes with one hand in favor of the Trump plan, with the other hand it sells fables about isolated settlement nuclei in the (Gaza) Strip," he wrote on X, referring to the Gaza peace plan brokered by US President Donald Trump. 

The next phases of Trump's plan would involve an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the establishment of an interim authority to govern the territory in place of Hamas and the deployment of an international stabilization force. 

It also envisages the demilitarization of Gaza, including the disarmament of Hamas, which the group has refused. 

On Thursday, several Israelis entered the Gaza Strip in defiance of army orders and held a symbolic flag-raising ceremony to call for the reoccupation and resettlement of the Palestinian territory.