WASHINGTON — The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday on seven senior members of Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement, the Treasury Department said. The men smuggled military-grade items and weapon systems into Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and negotiated buying weapons from Russia, the Treasury Department said in a statement. It also designated Abdulwali Abdoh Hasan Al-Jabri and his company Al-Jabri General Trading and Investment Company for recruiting Yemenis to fight in Ukraine on behalf of Russia and raising money to support Houthi military operations. “The U.S. government is committed to holding the Houthis accountable for acquiring weapons and weapons components from suppliers in Russia, China and Iran to threaten Red Sea security,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement. On Tuesday, the State Department said it was implementing the designation of the Houthi movement as a “foreign terrorist organization” after President Donald Trump called for the move earlier this year. The move, however, triggered concerns it could affect regional security and worsen Yemen's humanitarian crisis because importers fear being hit with U.S. sanctions if supplies fall into Houthi hands.

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — Attackers launched two suicide bombings to breach a wall at a military base in northwestern Pakistan while others stormed the compound and were repelled in violence that killed at least nine people and injured 25, officials and a local hospital said. A group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in Bannu, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and said dozens of Pakistani security forces were killed. The military did not immediately confirm any casualties, but Bannu District Hospital said at least nine people were dead. Plumes of gray smoke rose into the air and gunshots continued after the two explosions, police officer Zahid Khan said. Four of those killed were children, hospital officials said. The victims lived close to the scene of the blasts. The two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the wall of the sprawling military area, a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. "After a breach in the wall, five to six more attackers attempted to enter the cantonment but were eliminated. Operations in the area are still ongoing," the security official said. The blasts happened after sunset, when people would have been breaking their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Jaish Al-Fursan claimed responsibility for the attack, the third militant assault in Pakistan since Ramadan started Sunday. In a statement, the group said the source of the blasts were explosive-laden vehicles. Militants have targeted Bannu several times. Last November, a suicide car bomb killed 12 troops and wounded several others at a security post. In July, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle and other militants opened fire near the outer wall of the military facility.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department on Tuesday reinstated the "foreign terrorist organization" designation for Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group, fulfilling an order announced by President Donald Trump shortly after he took office. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the department had restored the designation, which carries with it sanctions and penalties for anyone providing "material support" for the group. "Since 2023, the Houthis have launched hundreds of attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as U.S. service members defending freedom of navigation and our regional partners," Rubio said in a statement. "Most recently, the Houthis spared Chinese-flagged ships while targeting American and allied vessels." The Houthis have targeted more than 100 merchant vessels in the critical trade corridor with missiles and drones since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip started in October 2023. In January, the group signaled that it would limit its attacks in the Red Sea corridor to only Israeli-affiliated ships after a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip but warned that wider assaults could resume if needed. Trump's first Republican administration had similarly designated the Houthis in its waning days, but the designation had been revoked by President Joe Biden's Democratic administration over concerns it would badly affect the delivery of aid to Yemen, which was facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The United Nations said last month that it suspended its humanitarian operations in the stronghold of Yemen's Houthi rebels after they detained eight more U.N. staffers. The rebels in recent months have detained dozens of U.N. staffers, as well as people associated with aid groups, civil society and the once-open U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen's capital. None of the U.N. staffers have been released. The Iranian-backed Houthis have been fighting Yemen's internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, since 2014, when they descended from their stronghold in Saada and took control of Sanaa and most of the north.

JERUSALEM — Israel's defense ministry said Saturday the military has been instructed to prepare to defend a Druze settlement in the suburbs of Damascus, asserting that the minority it has vowed to protect was "under attack" by Syrian forces.  The statement, citing an order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, follows an Israeli warning last weekend that the forces of neighboring Syria's new government and the insurgent group that led last year's ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad should not enter the area south of Damascus.  Saturday's statement indicates that Israeli forces could push farther into Syria as its new authorities try to consolidate control after more than a decade of civil war. Israeli forces recently set up posts in a buffer zone and on strategic Mount Hermon nearby. There have been no major clashes between Israeli troops and Syria's new forces.  "We will not allow the terrorist regime of radical Islam in Syria to harm the Druze. If the regime harms the Druze, it will be harmed by us," the statement said.  There was no immediate response from Syria's government.  The Druze are a religious minority who live in southern Syria and in Israel's Golan Heights, where they navigate their historically Syrian identity while living under Israeli rule.  Israel's statement followed the outbreak of unrest Friday in the Druze settlement of Jaramana, when a member of the security forces entered and started shooting in the air, leading to an exchange of fire with local gunmen that left him dead.  On Saturday, gunmen came from the Damascus suburb of Mleiha to Jaramana, where they clashed with Druze gunmen. That left one Druze fighter dead and nine other people wounded, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor.  The Israeli warning last Sunday to Syrian forces and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the main former rebel group, made clear that Israeli forces would stay in parts of southern Syria for an indefinite period.  "We demand the complete demilitarization of southern Syria in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Sweida from the forces of the new regime," that earlier statement said. "Likewise, we will not tolerate any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria."  After the fall of Assad in December, Israel seized the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory. The zone was set up under a 1974 ceasefire agreement. Syria's new authorities and U.N. officials have called for Israel to withdraw.  Meanwhile, Netanyahu's government has been under pressure to protect Israelis living near border areas in the north as it tries to return residents of the north to their homes. 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army said Saturday it had killed a top military leader of Hurras al-Din, a Syrian branch of Al-Qaida that announced its dissolution in January. The U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said in a statement that its forces on Feb. 23 "conducted a precision airstrike in Northwest Syria, targeting and killing Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, the senior military leader of the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din." "As we have said in the past, we will continue to relentlessly pursue these terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and U.S., allied, and partner personnel in the region," said General Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM commander. Since Hurras al-Din announced in late January that it was dissolving itself, U.S. airstrikes have killed several of the group's leaders, according to CENTCOM. On Feb. 22, it said a "precision airstrike" had killed Wasim Tahsin Bayraqdar, a leader of the group, which the U.S. classifies as a terrorist organization. American forces are in Syria as part of an international coalition created in 2014 to fight the jihadis of the Islamic State group. After a rebel alliance led by radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled President Bashar al-Assad and took power in Damascus on Dec. 8, Hurras al-Din said it no longer needed to exist. The group, including foreign jihadis, was based in mountainous northwestern Syria. Some information in this report is from Reuters.