Live updates: Middle East crisis

Live updates: Middle East crisis

  • US strikes in Yemen kill 31 as Trump vows to end Houthi attacks
  • Iran says United States has 'no authority' to dictate its foreign policy
  • Israel signals willingness for ceasefire talks amid US mediation efforts
  • Trump orders strikes on Houthi rebels, promises to achieve objectives
  • Monday Mar 17 2025 | 08:37 AM

    UN chief calls for restraint in Yemen, end to military activities

    By: Reuters

    United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for "utmost restraint and a cessation of all military activities" in Yemen, his spokesperson said, after the United States launched deadly strikes in the country.

    "Any additional escalation could exacerbate regional tensions, fuel cycles of retaliation that may further destabilise Yemen and the region, and pose grave risks to the already dire humanitarian situation in the country," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

  • Monday Mar 17 2025 | 07:47 AM

    Iran-backed Houthis claim second attack on US ships in 24 hours

    By: AFP

    Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility on Monday for a second attack on an American aircraft carrier group in 24 hours, calling it retaliation for US strikes.

    A spokesperson for the group said "for the second time in 24 hours" Huthi fighters launched missiles and drones at the USS Harry S Truman and several of its warships in the northern Red Sea.

    The strikes exchange goes on amid indirect ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel via mediators in Egypt to hold the fragile truce in Gaza.

  • Monday Mar 17 2025 | 06:46 AM

    Houthi-affiliated TV reports US strike in northern Yemen

    By: Web Desk

    US forces have carried out a fresh raid in Yemen’s northern al-Jawf province, striking a government complex in al-Hazm district, according to Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV. 

    This follows US airstrikes across Yemen after Houthi warnings of renewed Red Sea attacks if Israel does not lift its Gaza blockade.

  • Sunday Mar 16 2025 | 11:56 PM

    US vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop

    By: Reuters

    The United States will keep attacking Yemen's Houthis until they end attacks on shipping, the US defense secretary said on Sunday, as the Iran-aligned group signalled it could escalate in response to deadly US strikes the day before.

    The Houthis' military spokesperson on Sunday said, without offering evidence, that the group had targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman and its warships in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones in response to the US attacks.

    US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures": "The minute the Houthis say we'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones. This campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting."

    "This is about stopping the shooting at assets ... in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States, and Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long," he said. "They better back off."

  • Sunday Mar 16 2025 | 11:01 PM

    Gaza death toll rises to 48,572

    By: Web Desk

    Gaza’s health ministry has updated the number of people killed and wounded by Israel’s offensive in the Strip since October 7, 2023.

    The ministry, in a statement, noted that 29 killed, including 14 newly killed and 15 corpses were recovered from under the rubble while 51 wounded people from Israeli strikes arrived in hospitals in the past 24 hours, as per Al Jazeera.

    The new numbers have brought the death toll from occupations’ attacks to at least 48,572 with 112,032 wounded.

  • Sunday Mar 16 2025 | 10:18 PM

    Israel says negotiators discussing hostages with mediators in Egypt

    By: AFP

    An Israeli negotiating team is currently discussing the hostages issue with Egyptian mediators in Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Sunday.

    "Under the directive of Prime Minister Netanyahu, representatives of the negotiation team are currently meeting in Egypt with senior Egyptian officials to discuss the issue of the hostages," the statement said, a day after announcing that a team would continue indirect ceasefire negotiations with Hamas.

  • Sunday Mar 16 2025 | 08:51 PM

    Rubio says Yemen strikes to continue until Houthis can no longer attack ships

    By: Reuters

    US strikes on Yemen will continue until the Houthis no longer have the capability to attack global shipping and the US Navy, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the CBS News "Face the Nation" program on Sunday.

    He said there was no talk of US ground raids in Yemen, adding: "I don't think there's a necessity for it right now". 

    Rubio also said that there was "no way" the Houthis would have the ability to attack global shipping without support from Iran.

  • Sunday Mar 16 2025 | 08:25 PM

    UNRWA serving 438,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria

    By: Web Desk
    — X/@UNRWA


  • Sunday Mar 16 2025 | 07:53 PM

    White House says 'multiple' Houthi leaders killed, Iran 'on notice'

    By: AFP

    US strikes killed multiple Houthi leaders in Yemen, the White House said Sunday, adding Iran was "put on notice" to stop backing the rebel group and its attacks on Red Sea shipping.

    The airstrikes Saturday "actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out," National Security Advisor Michael Waltz told ABC News.

    "We just hit them with overwhelming force and put Iran on notice that enough is enough," he said in a separate appearance on Fox News.

    He also reiterated a US warning that "all options are on the table" to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon.

  • Sunday Mar 16 2025 | 06:26 PM

    Russia says told US not to 'use force' in Yemen, begin dialogue

    By: AFP
    A plume of smoke billows during a US strike on Yemen´s capital Sanaa early on March 16, 2025. — AFP

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his US counterpart Marco Rubio in a phone call Saturday that all sides should refrain from the "use of force" in Yemen and enter a "political dialogue", Moscow said on Sunday.

    Moscow said Rubio informed Lavrov about Washington's decision to launch strikes against Yemen's Houthis, in a call that came after the two countries have relaunched dialogue since Donald Trump took office.

    "In response to argumentation put forward by American representatives, Sergei Lavrov stressed the need for an immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue so as to find a solution that would prevent further bloodshed," Russia's foreign ministry said.