Drone attack in Sudan threatens Khartoum airport's reopening: Reports A series of drone attacks has hit areas in Sudan's capital, including near Khartoum international airport, a day before its long-awaited reopening, according to the AFP news agency and Sudanese media reports. Witnesses told AFP they heard drones over central and southern Khartoum early on Tuesday. A wave of explosions was reported near the airport between 4am and 6am (02:00-04:00 GMT). The airport has been shut since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), badly damaging infrastructure. Sudan's Rakoba News, citing witnesses, reported more than eight blasts in and around the airport.

How can Europe protect its skies against'escalating' drone menace? A drone detection and defense system is parked in Kottingbrunn, Austria, on Oct. 3 | REUTERS Paris - Drones flying over airports, commercial sites and other sensitive infrastructure in Europe is a growing phenomenon which EU leaders blame on Russia, and preventing the disruption they cause will prove a tough technical challenge, observers say. Detecting the drones, making them non-operational by jamming them, or even shooting them down, are all complex and hazardous tasks. And while Russian involvement is suspected, it is difficult to prove. Concerns are growing that such disruptions could be part of Russian hybrid war tactics three-and-a-half years into its invasion of Ukraine, as most European countries double down on their support for Kyiv including by delivering military hardware.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has accused Rwanda of carrying out a drone attack that damaged a civilian aircraft at the airport in the strategic eastern city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. Fighting has flared in recent days around the town of Sake, 20km (12 miles) from Goma, between M23 rebels – which Kinshasa says are backed by Kigali – and Congolese government forces. "On the night of Friday to Saturday, at 2-o-clock in the morning local time, there was a drone attack by the Rwandan army," said Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike Kaito, army spokesperson for North Kivu province. "It had obviously come from the Rwandan territory, violating the territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo," he added in a video broadcast by the governorate. The drones "targeted aircraft of DRC armed forces".

A senior commander from Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed armed group in Iraq that the Pentagon linked to an attack that killed three US troops, died in a drone strike on a vehicle in eastern Baghdad, according to security sources and media reports. One of the sources said three people were killed and that the vehicle targeted on Wednesday night was used by Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a state security agency composed of dozens of armed groups, many of them close to Iran. Two officials with Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq said that senior commander Abu Baqir al-Saadi was among those killed, the Associated Press news agency reported. Local outlet Sabereen News also reported al-Saadi had been killed in the blast. Al Jazeera's Ali Hashem, reporting from Baghdad, said that "several explosions" were heard across the Iraqi capital and that security sources said three people have been killed.

United States troops in Iraq have been targeted in new attacks using drones and explosives, according to military and security sources. Three attacks took place on Thursday, the sources said, adding to the more than 40 assaults that US and allied troops based across the Middle East have come under since the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7. As well as two drone assaults at bases, a US-led coalition convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in the vicinity of Mosul Dam. The security sources said the patrol was accompanied by Iraqi counterterrorism forces and that a vehicle in the patrol was damaged. Three US troops sustained minor injuries but had returned to duty, the official added.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi said he was unhurt and appealed for "calm and restraint" after a drone attack on his residence early Sunday as political tensions mounted in the country. The attack in Baghdad's Green Zone was the first to target the residence of Kadhemi, who has been in power since May 2020, and came as Iraq's political parties wrangle over who will run the next government after elections last month. That vote saw the Conquest (Fatah) Alliance, the political arm of the pro-Iran Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network, suffer a substantial decline in its parliamentary seats, leading the group to denounce the outcome as "fraud". No group has yet claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack, which left two bodyguards injured, according to a security source. In a tweet, Kadhemi called "for calm and restraint on the part of everyone for the good of Iraq".

Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi said he was unhurt and appealed for "calm and restraint" after a drone attack on his residence in Baghdad's Green Zone early Sunday as political tensions mount in the country. "I'm doing fine, praise be to God, and I call for calm and restraint on the part of everyone for the good of Iraq," Kadhemi wrote on Twitter, after what his office called a "failed assassination attempt". Two security sources earlier confirmed the attack in the heavily-guarded Green Zone, which also hosts the US embassy and is frequently targeted by rocket attacks. A large number of security forces were deployed in and around the Zone following the attack, according to a security source. The attack came amid soaring political tensions over the results of October 10 elections.