UNICEF official is released in Yemen and returns home to Jordan, officials say

CAIRO (AP) — The deputy director of the UNICEF office in Yemen was released from detention by Houthi rebels in the Yemeni capital city and returned home Thursday to Jordan, the Jordanian foreign ministry said.

The freeing of Jordanian citizen Lana Shukri Kataw was announced at a time of high tensions in Yemen and the larger region. Israeli strikes on Yemen on Wednesday killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 130 others.

Kataw was one of at least 19 U.N. staffers who were detained on Aug. 31 when the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group raided their offices in the capital city of Sanaa.

The Houthis have not given a reason for taking the U.N. staffers hostage. But the raids were the latest in a long-running Houthi crackdown on the U.N. and other international organizations as well as diplomats working in rebel-held areas.

In 2024, they detained at least 11 U.N. employees and days later said they had arrested suspected members of an espionage network. The United Nations has denied those allegations.

The raids on offices of the United Nations’ food, health and children’s agencies in Sanaa followed Israel’s killing of Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi and several Cabinet ministers in an airstrike the week before.

It was not immediately clear exactly when Kataw was released, but the Jordanian foreign ministry said in a statement she was held in detention for days and that she arrived at a military airport in Jordan on Thursday.

It was unclear whether other staffers also had been freed.

Israel carried out airstrikes on Yemen on Wednesday and rescue efforts continued on Thursday.

The victims in Wednesday’s Israeli airstrikes in Yemen included at least two local journalists, Abduallah al-Bahri and Abbas al-Delmi, who were killed in the strikes in central Sanaa, the families told The Associated Press on Thursday.

They worked for news outlets called 26 September and Sabaa news agency.

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, in his weekly address, accused Israel of targeting media institutions and civilian infrastructure, but said the strikes would not deter his group.

“Israel is a criminal enemy that targets media institutions in Sanaa in places crowded with civilians ... because it seeks to target everyone,” he said.

The airstrikes also caused damaged to Yemen's national museum and other historical sites in the capital, the Houthi culture ministry said Thursday.

The status of the artifacts inside the museum is still unclear, but thousands of historical artifacts are at risk of damage, according to the ministry. AP photos and video footage from the site of Wednesday's strike showed damage to the building’s facade.

The ministry called on the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO to condemn the attack and to intervene to help protect the historical building and its artifacts.

Most of those killed were in Sanaa, the capital, where a military headquarters and a fuel station were hit on Wednesday, the Houthi-run health ministry said.

Israel has previously launched waves of airstrikes in response to the Houthis’ firing of missiles and drones at Israel. The Iran-backed Houthis say they are supporting Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and on Sunday they sent a drone that breached Israel’s multilayered air defenses and slammed into a southern airport.

Separately, the Israeli military said Thursday it carried out strikes in Lebanon targeting what it described as a Hezbollah “site used for the production and storage of strategic weapons” in the Bekaa valley and infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in the area of Zrariyeh in the south.

Earlier, Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike targeting a motorcyclist near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. Lebanese officials also said Israeli forces entered the border village of Aita al-Shaab and carried out a controlled demolition of a building that had previously been a school for special needs students.

Since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November, Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon that it says are aimed at stopping the militant group from rebuilding its capabilities.

Lebanese officials say the strikes are in violation of the ceasefire.

A man inspects the damage outside the National Museum, following the Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Smoke billows following Israeli airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo)

People inspect the damage at the National Museum, following the Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Flames and smoke rise following Israeli airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo)

A man inspects the damage at the National Museum, following the Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s federal government on Monday accused the provincial administration led by imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party of working “hand in glove” with the Pakistani Taliban, citing the alleged collusion to justify its suspension a day earlier.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the government had “solid evidence” to support its allegations.

He said the suspension and imposition of a state of emergency in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province will allow security forces and the new administration to better coordinate efforts to combat terrorism.

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the provincial government had been suspended for at least six months but gave no timetable for lifting the emergency. Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, the province's top elected official, was in government custody after being removed from his position.

The information minister accused Afridi of facilitating the Pakistani Taliban, who are suspected of being behind a surge in violence in recent years. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.

Islamabad often accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering TTP militants, an allegation Kabul denies. The law minister said the federal government had exhausted efforts, including negotiations, to avoid imposing direct rule via the governor in the province.

Khan’s party spokesman, Zulfiqar Bukhari, rejected the allegations, saying their legal team was preparing legal challenges against the emergency decree.

“You cannot have a provincial government in the country which sympathizes with the terrorists, or which supports terrorists," the information minister told a news conference. He alleged that Khan’s supporters last week traveled through areas along the Afghan border with assistance from militants, who he said provided safe passage.

Daily life continued largely as normal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday, with busy roads and open markets. Authorities closed schools in the province for a day as a precaution against possible unrest, but demonstrations were limited to scattered groups of Khan’s supporters. No protests by the party were reported in Islamabad.

Talks last week between Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, and the federal government ended without agreement. The law minister said that federal officials had not asked PTI to cancel its planned march on Islamabad to demand Khan's release from prison, but had sought assurances that Afridi would prioritize the deteriorating security situation in his province. Tarar said that PTI representatives focused instead on securing Khan’s release.

Afridi and other PTI leaders have said Khan’s release and the fight against terrorism are separate issues and that the federal government’s counterterrorism policy is flawed. PTI also wants better medical facilities for Khan at a private hospital. However, Sharif's government says Khan is medically fit and does not need hospitalization.

Khan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's main political rival, has been imprisoned since 2023 on corruption and other charges that he and his party say are politically motivated. Most supporters who had gathered in the province for this week’s planned march dispersed after Sunday’s announcement.

Afridi had claimed that 2 million people would take to the streets if his government were suspended.

People use an available passage on a road barricaded with shipping containers by authorities to maintain law and order situation following the Pakistani president declared a state of emergency in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and suspended its government, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Zubair)

Police officers detain a supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party during a protest against the Pakistani president declared a state of emergency in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and suspended its government, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Zubair)

A police armored personnel carrier patrol on a barricaded road to maintain law and order situation following the Pakistani president declared a state of emergency in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and suspended its government, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Zubair)

Police officers stand guard at a road barricaded by authorities to maintain law and order situation following the Pakistani president declared a state of emergency in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and suspended its government, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Zubair)

Police officers detain a supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party during a protest against the Pakistani president declared a state of emergency in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and suspended its government, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Zubair)