Middle East & North Africa

SANAA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for launching a missile attack on a U.S. ship in the Gulf of Aden.

"In support of Palestinian people and response to the U.S. and British aggression against our country, our naval forces carried out an attack targeting the U.S. ship 'Ginko Picardie' in the Gulf of Aden with a number of missiles, and the strike was accurate and direct," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.

BEIRUT (AP) — An airstrike on southern Syria early Thursday killed at least nine people and was probably carried out by Jordan’s air force, Syrian opposition activists said, the latest in a series of strikes in an area where cross-border drug smugglers have been active.

There was no immediate confirmation from Jordan on the strike that hit the province of Sweida,

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said nine people, including two children and at least three women, were killed in the strike on the village of Orman.

SANAA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A landmine killed a boy in Hodeidah province, western Yemen, on Wednesday, local authorities said.

The boy stepped on the explosive device in Al-Zaafran village, in the southern part of the war-torn province on the Red Sea coast.

Landmines and other explosive devices have killed or injured thousands of civilians, especially children, in Yemen since the conflict began in late 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally-recognized government from the capital Sanaa.

CAIRO, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday warned against the danger of the military escalation in the Middle East region on multiple fronts, the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement.

During a meeting with the visiting Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis, Sisi reiterated "the vital need to defuse the current critical situation through an immediate and urgent ceasefire in Gaza Strip and enforcing the delivery of humanitarian aid," according to the statement.

TEHRAN, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said Wednesday that the country's armed forces will not set limits when defending the nation's interests and people, after launching missile strikes on targets in Syria and Iraq.

"We see no limit when it comes to defending our national interests and people," and Iran's reaction to threats will be "proportionate, decisive and harsh," the official IRNA news agency cited him as saying.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A shipment of medicine for dozens of hostages held by Hamas was en route to Gaza on Wednesday after France and Qatar mediated the first agreement between Israel and the militant group since a weeklong cease-fire in November.

The medicines arrived in Egypt and were on the way to the border. A senior Hamas official said that for every box provided for the hostages, 1,000 boxes would be sent in for Palestinians. The deal also includes the delivery of humanitarian aid to residents of the besieged coastal enclave.

ANKARA, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police detained at least 22 suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group, local media reported on Tuesday.

Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 19 suspected members of the group and detained 15 of them in operations based in the western province of Izmir, the state-run TRT broadcaster reported, adding efforts to apprehend the other four suspects are ongoing.

In a separate operation in the southern province of Mersin, the police detained seven other IS suspects, according to the semi-official Anadolu Agency.

BAGHDAD, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Three armed drones were shot down Tuesday near a military base hosting U.S. and other international troops in northern Iraq, the Iraqi regional counter-terrorism service reported.

A statement from the service of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region did not say if there were any casualties or damage to infrastructure due to the attack, which happened at the Erbil International Airport.

KIBBUTZ NIR OZ, Israel (AP) — Standing in the ruins of her home in the Nir Oz farming village on the Gaza border, Sharon Alony Cunio gazed at the distant skyline of Khan Younis, the Palestinian city where Hamas militants dragged her more than three months ago. Her husband, David, remains captive in Gaza.

He’s kilometers away but completely out of reach.

ISTANBUL (AP) — A Turkish court on Tuesday convicted the son of Somalia’s president over the death of a motorcycle courier and sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison. The sentence, however, was immediately commuted to a fine.

Mohammed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was charged with “causing death by negligence” after a diplomatic car he was driving hit Yunus Emre Gocer on a highway in Istanbul on Nov. 30. An arrest warrant was issued for Mohamud after Gocer died six days later, but the president’s son had already left Turkey.