Middle East & North Africa

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraq recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations and summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad on Tuesday in protest over Iranian strikes on northern Iraq that killed several civilians overnight, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said.

The Iranian attack was “a blatant violation” of Iraq’s sovereignty and “strongly contradicts the principles of good neighborliness and international law, and threatens the security of the region,” the ministry said in a statement.

Jan 15 (Reuters) - Yemen's Houthi movement will expand its targets in the Red Sea region to include U.S. ships, an official from the Iran-allied group said on Monday, as it vowed to keep up attacks after U.S. and British strikes on its sites in Yemen.

Attacks by the Houthis on ships in area since November have impacted companies and alarmed major powers in an escalation of Israel's more than three-month war with Hamas militants in Gaza. The group says it is acting in solidarity with Palestinians.

SANAA, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. navy airforce shot down an anti-ship cruise missile fired by the Houthis in Yemen toward a navy battleship, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement on early Monday morning.

The missile, which was fired at approximately 4:45 p.m. (1345 GMT) on Sunday toward a destroyer of the U.S. navy operating in the southern Red Sea, was intercepted in the vicinity of the coast of Hodeidah by U.S. fighter aircraft, said the central command, adding that no injuries or damage were reported.

BAGHDAD, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Monday reiterated that Iraq wants to end the presence of the U.S.-led international coalition in the country.

Al-Sudani made the remarks during his meeting with the Dutch Ambassador to Iraq Hans Sandee, whose country is scheduled to assume the presidency of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) mission in Iraq in mid-May, according to a statement issued by al-Sudani's media office.

JERUSALEM, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli woman was killed and at least 17 others injured in car-ramming and stabbing incidents in central Israel on Monday that the police said was "a serious terror attack."

Commander of the Central District of the Israeli Police Avi Bitton said that two Palestinian suspects had been arrested after the attack at the scene and were under investigation. He identified them as cousins from the Hebron area in the occupied West Bank.

Gaza (AP) —Israeli strikes hit Gaza City and soldiers battled militants in southern Gaza on Monday after the U.S., its top ally, said it was time to scale back operations. Palestinian authorities said the death toll in the enclave passed 24,000.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Missile fire struck a ship Monday just off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, less than a day after Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an anti-ship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, officials said.

Details remained scarce on the missile strike, though it marked the latest attack roiling global shipping amid Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Suspicion immediately fell on the Houthis.

BAGHDAD, Jan 14 (NNN-NINA) – Up to 88 Iraqi lawmakers submitted yesterday, a proposal for a draft law, requiring the end of the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, after repeated U.S. attacks against Iraqi security forces.

Falih al-Khazali, a member of the Iraqi parliament, said in a press conference that, the proposal was signed by 88 lawmakers from the Coordination Framework, the largest parliamentary alliance and an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties.

AKROTIRI, Cyprus Jan 14 (Reuters) - Pro-Palestinian activists protested at the gates of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on Sunday, angry that the British base was used as a launch pad for strikes against the Houthi militia in Yemen.

U.S. and British warplanes, ships and submarines launched dozens of air strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen overnight Thursday to Friday in retaliation for attacks on Red Sea shipping that the Iran-backed group says is a response to the war in Gaza.

RAF Akrotiri was used as a staging point for Typhoon fighter jets involved in the operation.

JERUSALEM, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A guided missile launched from Lebanon killed a 76-year-old woman and her son in a village in northern Israel on Sunday, medical officials said, hours after the Israeli military said it killed four heavily armed militants trying to enter from Lebanon.

Fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement has surged in parallel with Israel's more than three-month-old Gaza war against Palestinian Hamas, another ally of Tehran.