AL-MUKALLA: Lightning strikes killed 45 people in Yemen in July, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said, while local media reported almost the same number of lightning-related deaths this month.

In a routine agrometeorological alert issued on Wednesday, the FAO reported that intense lightning activity and thunderstorms last month killed 45 people and large numbers of livestock, mainly in Yemen’s highland provinces.

BEIRUT: Poor visibility caused by fog or a technical malfunction are being blamed for a Lebanese army helicopter crash that killed two crew members and injured a third.  

Investigators said they had been told by eyewitnesses that the helicopter appeared unstable in the air shortly before crashing near the Hammana military barracks, 33 km east of Beirut, late on Wednesday.

Capt. Joseph Hanna and First Lt. Richard Saab died instantly. A third crewman, First Adjutant Mohammed Sidah, was badly injured.

QAMISHLI, Syria: During the second week of August, the terror group Daesh carried out multiple attacks on Syrian regime soldiers in the governorates of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, leaving dozens dead and more injured.

With attacks in Syria’s central and eastern regions only continuing to grow in frequency and severity, some may wonder whether the group was truly eliminated when its defeat was announced in 2019.

BEIRUT: The Lebanese army turned away around 700 Syrians attempting to cross into the neighboring country illegally over the past week, the armed forces said in a statement on Wednesday.
The attempted influx coincides with days of rare protest in Syria’s southern city of Sweida, as dire living conditions stoke discontent in regime-held areas.
Millions of Syrians have already fled abroad since Syria’s war began in 2011 following the government’s repression of peaceful pro-democracy protests.

CHICAGO: Despite painting a broadly optimistic picture of advances in the peace process in Yemen over the past 18 months, including the April 2022 truce agreement between nation’s government and the Houthis, the US special envoy to the country, Tim Lenderking, said the path forward remains “difficult and challenging.”

Following the recent restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the latter of which backs and provides arms to the Houthis, the world “needs to see follow through on the commitments Iran has made” on Yemen, he added.