Lebanon Welcomes US Flight Ban Lift, Sudan Drone Strike Kills Dozens
In other Middle East developments, a drone strike in Sudan killed at least 40 people, and attacks on Saudi Arabia's Riyadh airport damaged aircraft.
Lebanon officially welcomed the lifting of a decades-long flight ban with the United States on Saturday, a move first announced by President Trump nearly two weeks ago. The Reagan administration had suspended direct flights between the U.S. and Lebanon in 1985.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun welcomed the decision, stating it signals U.S. confidence in Lebanon’s efforts to improve civil aviation safety. This development follows significant weakening of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group due to two wars with Israel, which resulted in the deaths of many of its political and military commanders.
Meanwhile, a drone strike in Sudan killed at least 40 people, including children, in the Abu Shandi area of the Blue Nile province, according to Emergency Lawyers, a group that monitors the conflict. The group attributed the Friday strike to the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group engaged in a conflict with Sudan’s military since 2023. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs expressed its dismay at the strike.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan has resulted in at least 150,000 deaths, according to the conflict monitor ACLED, although aid organizations believe the actual figure is higher.
In Saudi Arabia, attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on Riyadh airport on Thursday damaged three aircraft, according to two regional officials. Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation reported on Friday that three Saudi citizens were killed and several others were wounded. Air traffic was disrupted again on Friday evening when the Houthis fired another missile at the airport, prompting the diversion of numerous flights.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, stated that forces had destroyed 136 military targets in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, aiming to dismantle the rebel group's ballistic missile network. The Associated Press could not independently verify these claims.
Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces has intensified, with the Saudi-led coalition providing air support to reverse Houthi territorial gains.