One of CNN’s sources, an unnamed US official, put the number of US troops assisting in the effort at 200 and said they were part of a new joint task force that was formed in recent weeks as the war in Yemen began to escalate.

The war was reignited by July 13 Saudi airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport, an attack that was approved by President Trump, according to a report from Axios. The strikes were launched to prevent a plane from landing in Sanaa that took off from Iran, which was carrying a Yemeni delegation that attended the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

US and Saudi officials also alleged that the plane was carrying weapons and Iranian advisors. Following the strikes, Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, announced they were imposing a blockade on Saudi shipping, and the war has continued to escalate since then. Now, Ansar Allah is making significant gains on the ground, pushing closer to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

What was supposed to be an off-the-record conversation was leaked to the media and published in full by the Daily Wire. Vance’s appearance at the event was seen as an effort to assure pro-Israel Republicans that he still supported the US-Israel special relationship despite recent criticism of Israeli officials.

Vance was asked by Norm Coleman, the chair of the RJC, what his position on the US-Israel relationship and whether it was important to US national security, and replied, “Well, certainly it’s extremely important to America’s national security. It’s obviously, you know, I would say one of our most important alliances in the world and certainly our most important regional alliance.”

Citing President Trump’s view on Israel, Vance said that the “Israelis have been a great partner for a number of things, whether it’s Midnight Hammer or intelligence collection, technology sharing, they’ve been a great partner.”

My answer has generally been some version of this: 9/11 didn’t change us, we allowed it to change us, and in doing so critically damaged our very own political way of life.

We allowed our Arab American and Muslim American fellow citizens to become targets of federal surveillance and to be placed on secret government “watch lists” in the absence of any evidence they’d committed a crime.

We allowed the creation of the most sweeping and invasive surveillance dragnet in American history – first in secret via the National Security Agency’s (NSA) STELLAR WIND program and then openly through the passage of the PATRIOT Act just six weeks after the attacks.

Carrying signs that read “Do Not Join a War of Aggression” and “No Military Deployment to Hormuz,” the protesters chanted, “We cannot send our young people into a sea of death,” according to AFP, which reported from the scene and estimated that about 60 people took part in the demonstration.

“Sending our troops to an illegal war waged by the United States is unacceptable,” Choi Young-ok, a member of Korean Peace Solidarity for Sovereignty and Reunification, a group that is highly critical of the US military presence in South Korea, told AFP.

“There is no reason for us to send troops when no other country has done so or said it would,” added Choi, who also warned that sending South Korean troops would “inevitably lead to casualties.”

Abdallah Abu Gharqoud, a resident of the Bureij refugee camp, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that a neighbor had received a call that their entire block would be bombed.

“We gathered our belongings, the children, and went downstairs. We had barely reached the beginning of the street when something like a tornado happened, something unnatural, and the entire block was demolished,” he said.

The AP also reported that Palestinians received similar warnings on Tuesday in Gaza City and in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. The pattern continued on Wednesday as photos and videos from Gaza show evacuated buildings being bombed in Khan Younis and in the al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City.

Colby made the remarks in a virtual address to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of dozens of nations the Biden administration formed in 2022 to coordinate the flow of weapons into the Ukraine proxy war. The address came after President Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow and Kyiv in an apparent effort to restart peace talks.

“As President Trump has stated, our goal is a lasting peace. We are supporting every effort in that direction. From the standpoint of the Department of War, however, we cannot predict when this tragic war will end,” Colby said.

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