Tuesday, August 18, 2026 – Vessel struck while transiting Hormuz. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps denies President Donald Trump’s claim of direct backchannel. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi calls attack on Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani’s office a “false flag.” Refiners still profiting while oil prices fall. United Arab Emirates appears to begin shuttling liquefied natural gas through Hormuz. Ansarallah claims fourth attack on Saudi refinery in Jizan. Ansarallah attacks Saudi-backed forces positions in Yemen. Saudi- and UAE-backed Yemeni forces claim intensified drone, artillery attacks on Ansarallah. At least 17 civilian casualties in Ansarallah attacks since August 6. Saudi Arabia sending oil through Hormuz with its Red Sea route now imperiled. Israel continues its assault on Gaza. Seven wounded as attacks on the occupied West Bank continue. Jared Kushner meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 2.15 million Palestinians displaced in Gaza. Gaza’s hospitals running out of oxygen. CPJ: Palestinian journalist Mohammed Awad continues to be held in Israeli prison without known charges. Israel formally allows Jewish prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque for first time. U.S. groups push for release of Palestinian-American. Israel continues attacks in Lebanon despite “ceasefire” framework. Six foreign nationals wounded near Israel’s Lebanese border. Primaries in Florida, Alaska, California. Department of Justice plans to deploy roughly 1,000 poll monitors this fall. ICE proposes subsidizing liability insurance for local police doing immigration arrests. War Secretary Pete Hegseth travels to Iowa in “personal capacity” amid 2028 speculation. Kindergarten vaccine exemptions hit record high as measles cases surpass 2,500. House Ethics Chair Michael Guest violates STOCK Act for second time. Congo’s Ebola outbreak becomes country’s deadliest on record. Russia and Ukraine trade overnight strikes. Pakistani Supreme Court orders former Prime Minister Imran Khan moved to hospital over health concerns. Thousands displaced in Sudan. Saudi Arabia tightens rules on UAE-bound bank transfers. Israeli strikes hit Syrian air base being rehabilitated by Turkey. Iraqi resistance groups tell PM that they are losing patience with his raids.

Iran

• Vessel struck while transiting Hormuz: A vessel was struck by a projectile while traveling out of the Strait of Hormuz early Tuesday, UK Maritime Trade Operations reported. The impact damaged the engine room and killed one crew member.
  • The surviving crew members are receiving assistance from the Omani Coast Guard. No environmental damage has been reported, and authorities are investigating which party was responsible for the attack.
• IRGC denies Trump’s claim of direct backchannel: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps denied President Donald Trump’s claim that his administration had established a direct backchannel with the IRGC, Tasnim reports.
  • An IRGC spokesperson said that Trump’s claim was a “lie” and “nothing more than fantasies stemming from the delusions and nightmares brought on by defeat and desperation in the war.”
  • Trump told Fox News about the supposed channel on Monday and said he was “not in a hurry” to reach an agreement, as the 60-day negotiating window closed Monday without a plan to end the war.
  • Separately, Amwaj Media reported on Monday that Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani contacted IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi on Washington’s behalf in May, but Vahidi referred the outreach to Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who ultimately declined a Kurdish-facilitated meeting.
• FM Araghchi calls attack on Barzani office a “false flag”: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned Monday’s drone attack on Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani’s office and urged Kurdish authorities to remain vigilant against “false-flag ploys to sow discord between neighbors.”
  • Kurdish authorities had accused Iran of launching the drones from its territory.

• Refiners still profiting while oil prices fall: Brent crude is trading at around $91 a barrel, far below its Iran-war peak of $126, yet fuel prices remain elevated because refining capacity has recovered far more slowly than crude supplies, Reuters reported on Monday. The resulting shortage is delivering unusually large margins to refiners while consumers continue paying more.
  • The International Energy Association estimates Middle Eastern refining output was 2.9 million bpd below pre-war levels in the second quarter of 2026 and will remain 2.2 million bpd lower in the third. Unlike crude, refined fuels cannot be moved around Hormuz through regional pipelines.
  • The premium for European diesel over Brent, a measure of refining margins, has nearly risen from $25 a barrel in January to more than $70 in August, according to LSEG.
• UAE appears to begin shuttling liquefied natural gas through Hormuz: The UAE’s state-owned ADNOC appears to be extending its Hormuz oil-shuttle strategy to liquefied natural gas, according to Bloomberg’s energy reporter Stephen Stapczynski.
  • Two LNG tankers are conducting a ship-to-ship transfer outside the strait near Sohar, Oman, and another vessel carried LNG through Hormuz from ADNOC’s Das Island plant inside the Persian Gulf.
  • The shuttle trade uses dedicated tankers to carry energy from terminals inside the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, then transfers it at sea to vessels waiting off Oman and UAE’s coast. Those receiving tankers can deliver the cargo globally without entering the war-riven Gulf.

Yemen

• Ansarallah claims fourth attack on Saudi refinery in Jizan: Yemen’s Ansarallah armed forces targeted an Aramco refinery in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, with multiple drones, Saba news agency reported on Tuesday. The attack was carried out in response to violations of Yemeni airspace over Saada and Hajjah governorates, according to an Ansarallah source. This is the fourth reported attack on the facility in Jizan.
• Ansarallah attacks Saudi-backed forces positions in Yemen: Ansarallah targeted a weapons depot in Marib and a military wharf near Bab Al-Mandab Strait, belonging to Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, according to spokesperson Yahya Saree.
  • Saree separately claimed ballistic missiles hit a “Saudi military landing ship” and four accompanying boats off Mocha, burning the ship, sinking several boats and setting the others on fire.
  • Egypt’s Intel Observer said satellite imagery indicates the ship was likely the Indonesian-flagged LCT Amir Khan 1468, a Yemeni-owned landing craft docked beside patrol boats reportedly used by Tariq Saleh’s Saudi- and UAE-backed National Resistance.
  • The strikes and reported damage have not been independently verified.
• Saudi- and UAE-backed Yemeni forces claim intensified drone, artillery attacks on Ansarallah: Forces aligned with Yemen’s Saudi- and UAE backed groups said they are intensifying drone and artillery attacks on Ansarallah positions across Marib and the country’s western coast.
  • Tariq Saleh’s UAE-backed National Resistance released footage purporting to show drones striking Ansarallah fighters, gatherings, vehicles, and weapons depots along the Red Sea coast.
  • The Saudi-backed Yemeni National Army separately said its artillery was repeatedly striking Ansarallah positions south of Marib. The forces claimed to have carried out 133 military operations against the Ansarallah in the past 24 hours.

• At least 17 civilian casualties in Ansarallah attacks since August 6: At least 17 civilian casualties have been reported in Ansarallah attacks on Yemeni government-controlled areas since August 6, while two additional casualties were reported in Ansarallah-controlled areas in late July, the UN said.
  • Reported incidents included a missile strike on a displacement camp in Marib and an August 11 attack on a cargo ship in the Bab Al-Mandab Strait that killed four crew members and injured several others.
• Saudi Arabia sending oil through Hormuz with its Red Sea route now imperiled: Saudi Aramco is offering Arab Medium and Arab Heavy crude for ship-to-ship delivery off Sohar, Oman, Bloomberg reported on Monday, suggesting the kingdom may have begun moving more oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
  • Saudi Arabia had relied more heavily on its cross-country pipeline to Yanbu on the Red Sea, but that route came into question when Ansarallah declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia on July 20 and escalated attacks near the port of Mokha and the Bab Al-Mandab.
  • Kpler estimated a sharp drop in Yanbu loadings in early August, falling to 1.78 million bpd from 4.04 million the week before.
  • Saudi Arabia has assembled many supertankers off Oman, pointing to possible large-scale ship-to-ship transfers outside the Strait of Hormuz. Bloomberg reported at least 19 supertankers.

Palestine

• Killed and wounded in Gaza: Over the past 24 hours, one Palestinian was killed due to wounds sustained in earlier attacks, and two were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
  • The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,400 killed, with 174,312 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,266 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 4,200, while 813 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.
• Israel continues its assault on Gaza:
  • Israeli forces shot and wounded a child in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis on Monday.
  • Israeli artillery fire wounded several people in Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, with an artillery shell hitting a house near the Al-Sanafour junction, setting it ablaze.
• Seven wounded as attacks on the occupied West Bank continue:
  • Hebron: Israeli settlers attacked a Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulance on Monday while it was transporting a patient in Hebron, PRCS said. Israeli soldiers were present but did not intervene to stop the attack.
  • Nablus: Israeli forces and settlers continued to surround three Palestinian families in Qusra in the northern occupied West Bank for the tenth consecutive day. Israeli settlers have attacked municipal workers while they attempted to repair water and electricity connections damaged over the past week, and have impeded the delivery of aid to the families.
    • Israeli forces beat and injured a 65-year-old Palestinian in Beit Imrin, northwest of Nablus, on Tuesday, WAFA reported. Forces also beat two Palestinians during an overnight raid on Beit Imrin. Israeli settlers attacked and injured two Palestinians in Beita, south of Nablus.
  • East Jerusalem: Israeli forces shot and wounded a young Palestinian near the separation wall in Al-Ram, north of occupied Jerusalem. Forces also detained a 15-year-old boy after raiding and ransacking his family’s home in Anata, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, early Tuesday.
  • Ramallah: Israeli forces arrested a Palestinian physician after raiding her home on Tuesday morning. Separately, settlers protected by the Israeli military set fire to Palestinian-owned land in the Al-Shouna area on the outskirts of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah, on Monday evening. Israeli forces also shot a Palestinian man in the head outside his home during a late-night raid on Ajjul, north of Ramallah.
• Kushner meets with Netanyahu: Trump’s son-in-law and “Board of Peace” member Jared Kushner met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. Kushner was accompanied by the board’s High Representative Nickolay Mladenov and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
  • During their meeting, which lasted more than four hours, Kushner reportedly pressed Netanyahu to advance Trump’s stalled Gaza plan and “not create obstacles,” according to CNN.
  • Netanyahu said Israel would not withdraw any forces from Gaza or permit any reconstruction until Hamas completely disarms. Kushner echoed this sentiment following the meeting, telling Fox News that the U.S. would “not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until the demilitarization occurs.”
  • Kushner publicly issued a 90 day ultimatum for disarmament, saying, “If Hamas actually gives over the weapons in the tunnels willingly over the next 60 to 90 days, that obviously would be the elimination of a huge security threat for Israel, almost an unthinkable achievement.”
  • Hamas has maintained that Israel halting killings and attacks was the “fundamental prerequisite” for moving forward with implementation and establishing a framework and timetable for the agreement, stressing that implementation of the second phase was conditional on Israel fulfilling all provisions of the first phase.
  • Kushner and Netanyahu reportedly agreed that an American general would oversee the decommissioning of Hamas’ weapons, and Netanyahu’s office later announced the establishment of two working groups, one to pursue the “prompt” disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza before reconstruction, and another addressing sanitation, clean water, and public health.
  • A separate Israeli source told CNN that Netanyahu called progress on the 15-point plan, which Israel rejected earlier this month, “problematic” because of Israel’s October elections. Netanyahu is trailing in repeated polls.
  • Netanyahu also insisted Israel would continue “targeted assassinations” of Hamas, the source said. Kushner concurred in a public statement, saying that Washington “is not going to restrict Israel’s right to defend itself” against what he called would-be “imminent threats.”
  • Kushner told Fox News that Hamas officials had “said all the right things” during Sunday’s meeting, but added: “It’s very, very hard to trust, you know, a terrorist organization that committed these terrible atrocities.”

• 2.15 million Palestinians displaced in Gaza: More than 2.15 million Palestinians from 509,393 families are displaced across Gaza and living under catastrophic housing conditions, Gaza’s Government Media Office said Monday. Nearly 196,000 families, or roughly 867,000 people, are living in deteriorating makeshift tents without basic necessities.
• Gaza’s hospitals running out of oxygen: Gaza’s hospitals face an imminent oxygen-supply collapse, with most of its oxygen generation stations having ceased to operate and with Israel continuing blocking spare parts and maintenance equipment, the Palestine Information Center reported on Monday, citing Gaza’s Health Ministry.
  • The ministry said the resulting shortage is placing dozens of critically ill and wounded patients at immediate risk of death and has severely affected 72 intensive-care units, 54 neonatal and premature-baby units and 19 pediatric intensive-care units.

• CPJ: Palestinian journalist Mohammed Awad continues to be held in Israeli prison without known charges: Israeli forces detained Palestinian journalist Mohammed Awad, a contributor to Drop Site and AFP, from his home in Beitunia near Ramallah on August 12. Awad’s wife, Eman Shalash, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that Israeli forces blindfolded him before taking him to an unknown location; she later learned he was being held in Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
  • The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and International Federation of Journalists condemned his detention and called for his immediate release, describing it as part of the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists.
  • CPJ said the Israeli military had not responded to its request for information about Awad’s conditions or any charges against him.

• Israel formally allows Jewish prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque for first time: Israeli authorities formally permitted Jewish prayer inside Al-Aqsa Mosque for the first time, marking an unprecedented change to the decades-old status quo governing the occupied East Jerusalem holy site, Middle East Eye reported. Israeli police on Sunday allowed settlers entering the compound to carry Jewish prayer books and conduct organised group prayers, according to a Palestinian source from the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.
  • While Israeli settlers have previously prayed at the site, often with police allowing it, such practices had not been formally authorised. Under the internationally recognised status quo, the entire 144-dunam Al-Aqsa compound is an exclusively Islamic holy site administered by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.
• U.S. groups push for release of Palestinian-American: A coalition of 102 faith, human rights and civil rights organizations is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to secure the immediate and permanent release of Sama Safi, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen and Birzeit University honors student with a severe chronic illness who has been held by the Israeli military since soldiers raided her family’s West Bank home on June 2.
  • The letter says the Palestinian-American Safi was shackled, blindfolded, denied food and water for 24 hours, verbally abused, and forced into stress positions before being unlawfully transferred to Damon prison in Israel, warning that the interruption of her specialist treatment could become life-threatening.

Lebanon

• Israel continues attacks in Lebanon despite “ceasefire” framework: Israeli forces continued their attacks across southern Lebanon on Monday and Tuesday, carrying out artillery shelling, strikes, and demolitions, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
  • Israeli artillery shelled the western outskirts of Houla in Marjayoun district and fired several shells at the outskirts of Majdal Zoun in Tyre (Sour) district on Tuesday. Israeli warplanes also struck Mansouri in Tyre district at dawn.
  • Israeli forces carried out widespread bombardment and demolitions across four districts of southern Lebanon on Monday, L’Orient Today reported.
  • In the Bint Jbeil district, Israeli forces blew up homes near Baraashit Israeli forces conducted major demolitions in Marjayoun’s Bani Hayyan, burned homes in Talloussa and bulldozed the area around Mais Al-Jabal. An Israeli airstrike was also reported in Qantara.
  • Israeli drones attacked Kfar Roummane and Ali Taher in Nabatieh, while airstrikes and artillery also hit Mansouri and surrounding areas.
• Six foreign nationals wounded near Israel’s Lebanese border: Six foreign nationals were wounded, two seriously, in an ammunition explosion in an agricultural area of Metula, near the Lebanese border, Haaretz reported on Tuesday. Residents of Zarit reported hearing an interceptor launch, which the Israeli military said was under investigation.

U.S. News

• Primaries in Florida, Alaska, California: Primary elections are being held on Tuesday in Florida, where the Democratic Senate primary and several House seats are contested; in Alaska, whose nonpartisan Senate primary may offer a preview of the November general election, and in northern California, where voters will choose a replacement for Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April over allegations of sexual misconduct.
  • State Rep. Angie Nixon faces former Lt. Col. Alex Vindman in the Florida Democratic Senate Primary. Nixon, a former community organizer and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, increased her profile during Florida’s redistricting battles, opposing a plan to further gerrymander the state’s congressional districts. She pushed a resolution for “de-escalation and a ceasefire in occupied Palestine” in the State House and is endorsed by Reps. Maxwell Frost, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley. Vindman, a Trump impeachment whistleblower, has a distinct fundraising advantage in the race and leads in the polls. He has declined to characterize Israel’s conduct in Gaza as a genocide.
  • Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a staunch supporter of Israel, faces a primary challenge from the DSA-endorsed progressive Oliver Larkin.
  • Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz is seeking reelection in the state’s majority Black 20th district, facing four Black Democrats, including activist Elijah Manley.
  • Republican Rep. Cory Mills, who is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, faces a serious challenge in his Orlando-area district from Ryan Elijah, a former local TV anchor endorsed by two of his congressional colleagues.
  • In Alaska’s nonpartisan primary, current GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan and former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola will get a preview of the November general election, one of a few races that could determine control of the Senate.
  • California state Sen. Aisha Wahab, 39, a progressive who has the endorsement of the California Democratic Party, faces Melissa Hernandez, 51, a moderate supported by AIPAC’s main super PAC in the race to replace Swalwell. AIPAC has spent $2.5 million on the race.
• DOJ plans to deploy roughly 1,000 poll monitors this fall: The Justice Department plans to send about 1,000 monitors to polling places this fall, a number Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon told Bloomberg News is “probably going to be a historic number for a Republican administration.”
  • Under previous administrations, the DOJ concentrated its election monitoring efforts on a specific number of districts, not a specific number of personnel.
  • The deployment follows President Donald Trump’s comments earlier this year that Republicans should “nationalize the voting” and “take over the voting.”
  • Dhillon said the department is still determining locations for its deployment but pointed to jurisdictions with potential “language issues,” “disability rights issues,” or “voter fraud issues.”
• ICE proposes subsidizing liability insurance for local police doing immigration arrests: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has offered to subsidize liability insurance for state and local officers deputized to enforce federal immigration laws, reimbursing up to $250 annually, or roughly the cost of personal liability insurance, toward coverage of up to $500,000, according to a planning document first reported by the Associated Press.
  • The plan comes as arrests through ICE’s local task force partnerships, now involving nearly 1,600 agencies across 32 states, jumped to an average of 3,000 per month in early 2026, up from 250 monthly under President Joe Biden, with local departments increasingly worried about civil liability since their standard insurance policies often exclude immigration enforcement work.
• Hegseth travels to Iowa in “personal capacity” amid 2028 speculation: War Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to Iowa Monday in what the Pentagon described as his “personal capacity,” fueling further speculation about a potential future presidential run.
  • Hegseth is using a U.S.-funded military aircraft because he is designated a “required use” traveler mandated to fly on military planes for both official and unofficial travel due to security requirements.
• Kindergarten vaccine exemptions hit record high as measles cases surpass 2,500: The share of U.S. kindergartners exempted from school vaccine requirements rose to a record 4.2% for the 2025-26 school year, up from 3.6% the previous year, according to CDC data released Monday.
  • About 280,000 kindergartners started school without documented MMR protection.
  • The data comes as CDC reported 2,566 confirmed measles cases this year, already exceeding all of 2025’s total, with 93% of cases occurring in unvaccinated people or those with unknown vaccination status.
  • President Donald Trump has pushed to split the combined MMR vaccine into three separate shots, a move criticized by the American Academy of Pediatrics as “dangerous” given the rising number of measles cases.
• House Ethics Chair Michael Guest violates STOCK Act for second time: House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, was more than six months late disclosing three stock sales made by his wife’s family trust involving Chevron, Airbnb, and e.l.f. Beauty shares, marking his second STOCK Act violation and the seventh such violation by a member of Congress this month, according to a NOTUS review of financial records.
  • Guest, whose committee enforces the law and can levy fines for noncompliance, told the House clerk that a compliance firm missed the trades while preparing his annual disclosure and said he has notified Ethics Committee staff and initiated an additional compliance review.
  • Guest was previously more than eight months late in disclosing a 2021 sale of stock benefiting his wife’s family trust.

Other International News

• Congo’s Ebola outbreak becomes country’s deadliest on record: Congolese authorities announced that more than 2,300 people have died in the country’s latest Ebola outbreak, making it the deadliest the country has ever recorded.
  • The outbreak is also spreading faster than any previous Ebola outbreak, with 101 new cases and 33 deaths reported in the latest 24-hour period. More than 1,000 people have recovered, while 730 remain hospitalized or in isolation.
  • The toll has surpassed Congo’s 2018–2020 outbreak and the World Health Organization has warned the current epidemic is on track to exceed the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people.
• Russia and Ukraine trade overnight strikes: Ukraine launched one of its largest aerial attacks of the war against Russia overnight into Monday, as Russia pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles that Ukraine is increasingly unable to intercept due to interceptor shortages.
  • Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones across the country, including about 600 aimed at the Moscow area, according to CNN. Russian authorities reported at least six people killed, including an 83-year-old man.
  • The barrage hit warehouses for the Russian online retailer Wildberries near Moscow and, according to the Ukrainian military, a Rostov plant producing solid rocket propellant for Russian weapons. A Greek oil tanker was also attacked near the port of Novorossiysk.
  • Russia struck back at Kyiv with ballistic missiles, hitting a book market and wounding six, Ukrainian officials said. Ukraine remains critically short of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors, the only system able to down Russian ballistic missiles, as U.S. stocks of the missiles are diverted to the Middle East.
• Pakistani Supreme Court orders former PM Khan moved to hospital over health concerns: Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered former Prime Minister Imran Khan to be transferred from prison to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for medical checks after his lawyers raised concerns about his health.
  • Khan, 73, has been imprisoned since 2023 and was sentenced with his wife Bushra Bibi late last year to 17 years in prison in a corruption case. His lawyers and family have previously said he lost most of the vision in his right eye, though the latest petition did not publicly specify the nature of his current health problems.
• Thousands displaced in Sudan: Escalating violence in southeastern Sudan forced more than 5,000 residents to flee their homes in mid-August over a four-day period, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Monday.
  • The UN migration agency reported Monday that approximately 5,355 individuals (roughly 1,071 households) abandoned the town of Qaisan and seven neighboring villages in Blue Nile state between August 12 and 15, with fighting between rival armed groups intensifying.
  • Local officials confirmed that military forces recently repelled a joint assault on Qaisan, which sits near the Ethiopian border, launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North.
• Saudi Arabia tightens rules on UAE-bound bank transfers: Saudi Arabia has placed financial transfers to the UAE under enhanced anti-money laundering and counterterrorism-financing scrutiny as political and economic tensions between the two Gulf powers continue to widen.
• Israeli strikes hit Syrian air base being rehabilitated by Turkey: Eight Israeli airstrikes hit the runway of the Abu Duhur air base in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province early Tuesday, causing material damage but no reported casualties, according to Syrian state television. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said foreign fighters had previously stayed at the base but were recently asked to leave, and that Turkey—a key backer of Syria’s government—had been rehabilitating the facility.
  • U.S. envoy to Damascus Tom Barrack said Tuesday that Washington was “deeply concerned” by confirmed Israeli airstrikes on the air base, calling them an “unnecessary escalation” that did not advance regional stability.
• Iraqi resistance groups tell PM that they are losing patience with his raids: Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah warned Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi that its “patience is running out” over raids targeting the families of resistance fighters, martyrs and the wounded, threatening retaliation if the operations, which it described as “U.S. supervised,” continued.
  • Security official Abu Mujahid Al-Assaf said the group would discuss regulating its weapons only after all U.S. forces leave Iraqi territory with guarantees they will not return, U.S. control over Iraqi decision-making ends, Turkish troops withdraw from northern Iraq, and the Kurdish Peshmerga is dissolved.

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