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Biden Orders Strike on Iranian-Aligned Group After 3 US Troops Injured in Drone Attack in Iraq 

President Joe Biden answers a reporter's question as he walks from Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, Dec. 20, 2023, in Washington. (AP)
President Joe Biden answers a reporter's question as he walks from Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, Dec. 20, 2023, in Washington. (AP)
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Biden Orders Strike on Iranian-Aligned Group After 3 US Troops Injured in Drone Attack in Iraq 

President Joe Biden answers a reporter's question as he walks from Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, Dec. 20, 2023, in Washington. (AP)
President Joe Biden answers a reporter's question as he walks from Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, Dec. 20, 2023, in Washington. (AP)

President Joe Biden ordered the US military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three US servicemembers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said one of the US troops suffered critical injuries in the attack that occurred earlier Monday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilized a one-way attack drone

Biden, who is spending Christmas at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, was alerted about the attack by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan shortly after it occurred on Monday and ordered the Pentagon and his top national security aides to prepare response options to the attack on an air base used by American troops in Erbil.

Sullivan consulted with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Biden's deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, was with the president at Camp David and convened top aides to review options, according to a US official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

Within hours, Biden convened his national security team for a call in which Austin and Gen. CQ Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed Biden on the response options. Biden opted to target three locations used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, the official said.

The US strikes were carried out at about 4:45 a.m. on Tuesday in Iraq, less than 13 hours after the US personnel were attacked. According to US Central Command, the retaliatory strikes on the three sites, "destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants.”

"The President places no higher priority than the protection of American personnel serving in harm’s way," Watson said. “The United States will act at a time and in a manner of our choosing should these attacks continue.”

The latest attack on US troops follows months of escalating threats and actions against American forces in the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the devastating war in Gaza.

The dangerous back-and-forth strikes have escalated since Iranian-backed militant groups under the umbrella group called the “Islamic Resistance” in Iraq and Syria began striking US facilities Oct. 17, the date that a blast at a hospital in Gaza killed hundreds. Iranian-backed militias have carried out dozens of attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria since the start of the Israel-Hamas war more than two months ago.

Last month, US fighter jets struck a Kataib Hezbollah operations center and command and control node, following a short-range ballistic missile attack on US forces at Al-Assad Air Base in western Iraq. Iranian-backed militias also carried out a drone attack at the same air base in October, causing minor injuries.

The US has also blamed Iran, which has funded and trained Hamas, for attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militias against commercial and military vessels through a critical shipping choke point in the Red Sea.

The Biden administration has sought to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a wider regional conflict that either opens up new fronts of Israeli fighting or that draws the US in directly. The administration’s measured response — where not every attempt on American troops has been met with a counterattack — has drawn criticism from Republicans.

The US has thousands of troops in Iraq training Iraqi forces and combating remnants of the ISIS group, and hundreds in Syria, mostly on the counter-ISIS mission. They have come under dozens of attacks, though as yet none fatal, since the war began on Oct. 7, with the US attributing responsibility to Iran-backed groups.

"While we do not seek to escalate conflict in the region, we are committed and fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities," Austin said in a statement.

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Arab World

Four Syrians, One Lebanese Involved in Capture of ‘Baniyas Butcher’ in Lebanon

Ali Kayali (Mihrac Ural) in an undated file photo circulated on Syrian social media
Ali Kayali (Mihrac Ural) in an undated file photo circulated on Syrian social media
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Four Syrians, One Lebanese Involved in Capture of ‘Baniyas Butcher’ in Lebanon

Ali Kayali (Mihrac Ural) in an undated file photo circulated on Syrian social media
Ali Kayali (Mihrac Ural) in an undated file photo circulated on Syrian social media

Lebanese judicial and security authorities are investigating the abduction of former Syrian regime officer Ali Kayali, also known as Mihrac Ural, from Mount Lebanon and his transfer to Syria in a covert operation that Lebanese officials say was carried out without their prior knowledge.

Accounts differed over how the operation was carried out and the route taken by those who seized him from the Metn area of Mount Lebanon into Syrian territory.

A day after the Syrian side announced the operation without any prior coordination with the Lebanese state, Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation Judge Ahmad Rami al-Haj issued judicial instructions to Lebanese Army Intelligence, the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch and General Security, tasking them with investigating the circumstances of the operation and identifying those who carried it out.

Four Syrians and one Lebanese

A judicial source said preliminary information indicated that the operation was “carried out by four Syrians and one Lebanese.”

The source told Asharq Al-Awsat that tracking the phones used by those involved in the operation, as well as lines active around Kayali’s home, showed that they seized him inside his residence in Mansourieh before taking the coastal road through Jounieh and Tripoli to the Abboudieh border crossing in Akkar.

The source denied reports that Kayali had been taken to the Syrian Embassy compound in Yarzeh, saying footage from the embassy and surrounding surveillance cameras had been secured and showed that “he was never taken to the embassy.”

Syrian authorities accuse Kayali of responsibility for the 2013 massacres in al-Bayda and Baniyas on Syria’s coast, when he was leading an armed group fighting alongside forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad.

Human Rights Watch documented the execution of at least 248 people in the two areas, including women and children, and described the killings in al-Bayda as among the “deadliest instances of mass summary executions” in the Syrian conflict.

Conflicting accounts

Syrian and Lebanese accounts of the abduction differed.

Agence France-Presse quoted a Syrian security source as saying the operation “took place in coordination with the Lebanese side.”

The Lebanese judicial source, however, denied that Lebanese authorities had prior knowledge of it, saying Lebanese security agencies “were unaware that Kayali was in Lebanon or that he had been abducted until the Syrian side announced it.”

The source said security investigations conducted in recent hours showed that Kayali had entered Lebanon clandestinely with his wife in 2025 and had remained in hiding, moving with extreme caution until he was abducted.

According to information reported by Türkiye’s Anadolu news agency, Kayali was born in 1956 in Hatay province in southern Türkiye, near the Syrian border.

Ankara also accuses him of having led an armed group known as the “Syrian Resistance” and the “Popular Front for the Liberation of the Sanjak of Iskenderun,” and of involvement with Syrian intelligence under Bashar al-Assad in the Reyhanli bombings that killed 53 people.

Officers taking refuge in Lebanon

The incident has again brought attention to the flight of dozens of officers from the former Syrian regime to Lebanon following Bashar al-Assad’s departure and the fall of his government in late 2024.

The Lebanese judicial source said the case could not be separated from the arrest several weeks ago of Suleiman Hilal al-Assad, or the earlier detention of Major General Adel Issa inside the Syrian Embassy in Beirut. Lebanese judicial authorities later decided to hand Issa over to Damascus.

The source said the succession of such cases “indicates the presence in Lebanon of officers and figures from the former regime,” adding that some may be “receiving security protection from parties allied with the Assad regime, such as Hezbollah and others, while some are residing illegally or using forged documents to avoid having their identities discovered.”

The judicial source stressed that Lebanon “is cooperating with the Syrian authorities on correspondence concerning wanted figures from the former regime, and is also cooperating with international bodies on arrest requests and Interpol notices involving Syrian security officials accused of serious violations.”

Among the most prominent are former National Security Bureau chief Major General Ali Mamlouk, former Air Force Intelligence chief Major General Jamil Hassan, and Brigadier General Abdul Salam Mahmoud, former head of the Air Force Intelligence investigation branch.

The source said, however, that “no information has emerged indicating that they are present on Lebanese territory.”

Arab World

Is Israel Signaling a Wider Occupation of Southern Lebanon?

Israeli soldiers near the Litani River in southern Lebanon (File photo - Israeli military)
Israeli soldiers near the Litani River in southern Lebanon (File photo - Israeli military)
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Is Israel Signaling a Wider Occupation of Southern Lebanon?

Israeli soldiers near the Litani River in southern Lebanon (File photo - Israeli military)
Israeli soldiers near the Litani River in southern Lebanon (File photo - Israeli military)

Israel has escalated threats to expand its occupation of southern Lebanon, with Defense Minister Israel Katz warning that the Nabatieh and Litani areas could be added to what he called a permanent security zone if Hezbollah joins a possible confrontation between Israel and Iran.

The warnings have raised questions over which areas Israeli forces may seek to seize and whether they are preparing for a broader ground operation, as military activity continues and Israel moves closer to Knesset elections.

Katz had threatened to evacuate residents from broad areas of southern Lebanon as far as the Zahrani and Awali rivers, as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs. He said more than one million people could be displaced and that the Israeli military was ready to carry out a ground maneuver.

The threats come after Israeli forces expanded their deployment toward strategic high ground, including Beaufort Castle and Ali al-Taher near Nabatieh. Israeli strikes have also hit the Rihan, Sajd and Jabal al-Rafi heights, raising questions over whether Israel could seek wider control of elevated terrain and geographic corridors.

The remains of a home destroyed by the Israeli army in the southern Lebanese village of Beit Lif, in the Bint Jbeil district on April 22, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)

Israel seeks natural geographic barriers

Retired Brigadier General Fadi Daoud said Israel’s threats went beyond targeting Hezbollah and dismantling its military infrastructure, pointing to broader political and geographic aims.

“Military positions and ground operations, regardless of their size or depth, must serve the concept of a military maneuver on the ground, and that maneuver in turn serves a major political objective,” Daoud told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“The Israeli objective is not limited to striking Hezbollah positions and dismantling its military infrastructure. It goes beyond that to objectives linked to geography and control of territory.”

Daoud said Israeli movements in southern Lebanon should be viewed alongside developments in southern Syria, particularly in the Quneitra countryside and the Mount Hermon area, where he said the two tracks appeared interconnected within an Israeli approach centered on using geography to create security zones.

He said Israeli intentions should be read from developments on the ground rather than statements alone, adding that Israel had not yet reached the phase line it was seeking and that any military advance would unfold in stages, regardless of the distance involved.

“Any military action, even if the required advance is no more than 100 meters, is divided into stages, beginning with preparatory fire and securing the flanks, followed by launching the attack and consolidating positions,” he said.

Military phase lines, he added, are typically based on natural geographic barriers that allow attacking forces to consolidate their deployment and organize their defenses.

“What matters is not what Israel says, but what it does on the ground and the positions it is seeking to reach,” Daoud said.

“Israeli forces are seeking to stop at a clear geographic line. They cannot stop in the middle of an area without relying on a geographic barrier that allows them to consolidate their presence.”

Daoud said Israeli military ambitions could extend to the Awali River, north of Sidon. Reaching and controlling that line, he said, would push the security belt deep into Lebanese territory and affect all areas to its south, including Iqlim al-Tuffah and surrounding villages.

Escalation linked to Iran

Retired Brigadier General Naji Malaeb linked the Israeli threats to military preparations and the prospect of a confrontation with Iran as Israeli elections approach.

“Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s talk of possibly reaching the Awali River means the threats are no longer confined to Nabatieh district or the Litani area, but now cover a broader geographical area extending to Sidon and its surroundings,” Malaeb told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He said the threats also extended beyond southern Lebanon to Beirut’s southern suburbs, reflecting a sharp escalation in Israeli rhetoric ahead of the elections.

Malaeb pointed to what he described as significant Israeli military activity on the ground. The Israeli military’s 282nd Artillery Brigade, he said, had completed extensive drills on countering drones used by Hezbollah and on evacuation operations during combat.

The brigade then moved directly to southern Lebanon, he said, giving Israel additional artillery forces alongside those already deployed and ready to act if orders are issued.

Malaeb said any expansion of Israeli military operations would depend less on specific locations than on Israel’s political and military decision-making and on the extent of Hezbollah’s involvement in any renewed confrontation between Israel and Iran.

He said several scenarios were possible, including Iran seeking to use the Israeli election period to launch attacks or influence the electoral process, or Israel moving to expand the war against Iran before or during the elections.

A man smokes a waterpipe as he sits by the rubble in the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa in southern Lebanon on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP)

Malaeb said the prospect of a broader confrontation with Iran had been discussed between the United States and Israel, amid reservations expressed by Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir over the consequences of entering a conflict that could have difficult repercussions for Israel, particularly if it was not militarily prepared and with elections approaching.

On Hezbollah’s preparations, Malaeb said the seizure by Lebanese security forces of one truck loaded with explosives and linked to the group did not necessarily mean it was the only one to have crossed, as others could have passed without being intercepted.

That, he said, raised the possibility that Hezbollah was preparing for military action if a new regional confrontation erupted.

“The main question today is not which positions Israel may seek to control, but whether the political and military decision to expand the operations will be taken,” he said.

Developments on the ground

Israeli warplanes on Friday carried out a heavy strike on Kfar Tibnit in Nabatieh district, as air and artillery attacks intensified in the districts of Tyre and Bint Jbeil.

The attacks included three strikes on Mansouri and a fourth on Wadi Zibqin. Artillery fire hit Baraachit and Haddatha, the outskirts of Haris, areas around Zibqin and Shaqra, and later Mansouri and Majdal Zoun before dawn.

Warplanes also carried out simulated air raids over Tyre and nearby villages and dropped illumination flares over Mansouri and Bayt al-Sayyad.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said two people, including a four-year-old child, were wounded in a strike on Haddatha.

In Kfar Shouba, an Israeli force prevented Lebanese farmers from entering the areas of Azrael and Bastara to harvest olives, as residents of border villages continued to face difficulties reaching their farmland.

Arab World

Sanaa Tribes Hamper Houthi Push to Expand Recruitment

A gathering called for by the Houthi group in the southern suburbs of Sanaa (Houthi media)
A gathering called for by the Houthi group in the southern suburbs of Sanaa (Houthi media)
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Sanaa Tribes Hamper Houthi Push to Expand Recruitment

A gathering called for by the Houthi group in the southern suburbs of Sanaa (Houthi media)
A gathering called for by the Houthi group in the southern suburbs of Sanaa (Houthi media)

Houthi efforts to expand mobilization and recruitment around Yemen’s Houthi-held capital Sanaa are facing growing tribal resistance after the group failed to rally residents in several districts for armed gatherings backing its military escalation, as it steps up pressure on tribal sheikhs to send more young men to the front lines and offset mounting losses.

Local and tribal sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Houthi leaders have intensified contacts in rural Sanaa since the start of this month, pressing tribal sheikhs to raise readiness for what the group calls “tribal mobilization,” stage armed gatherings and provide new batches of fighters to reinforce the fronts.

The campaign has targeted Bani Matar, Sanhan and Bani Bahloul, Bilad al-Rus, Khawlan, Jihana, Hamdan, Arhab, Nihm, Saafan and Manakha.

But the push has met reluctance from a number of sheikhs and local dignitaries, the sources said, amid growing resentment over the continued depletion of tribal communities in battles whose human and economic costs are borne by families and local communities.

Some tribal leaders have told the Houthis they are unable to provide new fighters, the sources added, as recruitment calls draw fewer responses and fears grow over sending more young men to fronts where the group is suffering repeated losses.

Houthis use killing, displacement, and abduction to subjugate tribes (Facebook)

Threats and incentives

The Houthis have gone beyond outreach and mobilization calls, the sources said, putting pressure on tribal sheikhs to comply with their demands.

The measures have included threats to withdraw privileges and impose financial penalties on those who fail to comply, while offering cash and material incentives to those who agree to supply fighters to the fronts.

Through these tactics, the group is seeking to shift responsibility for providing fighters onto tribal sheikhs and use their social influence to recruit men from their communities, as casualties mount on fronts in Taiz, the western coast, Marib, al-Jawf, Lahj and al-Dhalea.

In a sign of the difficulties facing the recruitment drive, areas in Bani Matar, Sanhan and Nihm in Sanaa province recently held separate tribal gatherings called by the Houthis, but turnout was limited, local sources said.

The group used its media outlets to portray the gatherings as expressions of tribal support, seeking to bolster its image and justify continued military activity while pushing to recruit more fighters.

The limited turnout, according to the sources, underscores the difficulty of turning Houthi appeals into broad tribal mobilization, particularly as objections grow to the depletion of young men and the use of tribal ties to serve the group’s military objectives.

The recruitment drive coincides with continued restrictions and pressure on residents of rural Sanaa, amid accusations that the Houthis are tightening their grip on opponents and continuing to seize privately owned land and property, further fueling public resentment.

As living conditions and public services deteriorate, families are facing heavier economic burdens while the group continues to focus its efforts on mobilization campaigns and military activity rather than residents’ basic needs.

Sanaa rural tribesmen forced to chant Houthi slogans (Facebook)

Families fear for their sons

The campaign comes as the Houthis continue efforts to reinforce the fronts with fighters, while families grow increasingly fearful that their sons could be killed or return with permanent injuries, at a time of worsening economic hardship and declining basic services in Houthi-controlled areas.

Residents of the targeted districts in rural Sanaa are calling for an end to recruitment and mobilization campaigns and for efforts to be redirected toward easing economic hardship and improving services, rather than sending their sons to the front lines.

The Yemeni government has called on tribal sheikhs, fathers and mothers in those areas to prevent their children from joining Houthi ranks, warning against sending them into battles that, in its view, serve Iran’s project and regional agenda at the expense of Yemeni lives and the country’s future.

The government accuses the group of exploiting social influence and economic hardship, alongside intimidation and inducements, to draw young people into mobilization camps and onto the front lines instead of providing conditions that would allow them to work and live away from war.