JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said on Sunday that it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, from where Houthi rebels frequently launch attacks they describe as a response to the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF,” the Israeli Defense Forces said, using an acronym for the air force.
“Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol,” it said.
The Houthis, who are backed by Iran, regularly send missiles or drones toward Israel, the vast majority of which are shot down.
But last month, a drone attack claimed by the Houthis evaded Israeli air defenses and wounded 22 people in the tourist resort of Eilat.
Israel launched in response strikes on what it described as Houthi-linked targets in the rebel-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
The strikes killed at least nine people and wounded more than 170, according to the Houthis.
Israeli army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
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Israeli army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
Syria gunman who killed Americans was to be fired from security forces for ‘extremism’: ministry
DAMASCUS: Syria’s interior ministry said on Sunday that the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was to have been fired for extremism.
Two US troops and a civilian interpreter died in the attack on Saturday, which the US Central Command said had been carried out by an alleged Daesh group (IS) militant who was then killed.
The Syrian authorities “had decided to fire him” from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba told state television.
A Syrian security official told AFP on Sunday that “11 members of the general security forces were arrested and brought in for questioning after the attack.”
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the gunman had belonged to the security forces “for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra.”
Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was once controlled by IS during the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.
The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the attack occurred, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US-Syrian government patrol.”
US President Donald Trump called the incident “an Daesh attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” using another term for the group.
He said the three other US troops injured in the attack were “doing well.”
