Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have signed a mutual defense agreement, while the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have stepped up attacks on Saudi-linked targets.
Here’s a look at the latest developments across the Middle East on Friday. Full coverage can be found here.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, nuclear power Pakistan and Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and a rapidly growing defense industry, signed a mutual defense agreement on Friday.
The deal stipulates that an armed attack on either of the three countries will be regarded as an attack against them all. It was signed during a meeting in Saudi Arabia between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan's foreign ministry said.
“The Agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression,” the ministry said in a statement.
The deal comes at a time when Saudi Arabia, whose critical infrastructure and oil facilities have come under attack as part of the war in Iran, has been looking to diversify its defense partnerships.
Iran-backed Houthis launched attacks on Marib province in eastern Yemen Friday morning, in the latest escalation with Saudi-backed forces, a military official with the forces in Marib said.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said the missiles were fired from west of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
Local resident Khaled Masbih told The Associated Press that Houthi missiles struck multiple areas across the city, causing an unknown number of casualties. The Houthis did not claim the attack.
Separately, the rebel group struck the Najran region in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border on Thursday, the official spokesperson of the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, confirmed in a statement on X overnight.
He said the attack wounded 11 civilians, including a woman and a child who suffered second-degree burns, and accused the rebels of carrying out “indiscriminate shelling against civilian objects.”
The rebel group did not claim responsibility for the attacks in Marib or Najran. A spokesperson for the Houthis, Nasruddin Amer, said on X on Friday that the group will continue to target gatherings of Saudi-backed forces.
The attacks mark a major escalation since a truce in 2022 largely halted fighting. The civil war pits the Iran-backed Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
—By Ahmed Al-Haj in Aden, Yemen and Fatma Khaled in Cairo
The Lebanese army said the soldier was lightly wounded on Friday while he was in a bulldozer opening roads in the southern village of Mansouri.
Mansouri was subjected to Israeli shelling earlier this week, according to Lebanon’s state news agency.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The Israeli army launched strikes Wednesday in southern Lebanon in response to what it described as Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire and called on residents of Mansouri to flee — the first such warning Israel has issued in Lebanon for weeks.
FILE - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shake hands during a welcome ceremony, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File)
NONTHABURI, Thailand (AP) — A student shot several people at a high school outside Bangkok on Friday morning, killing at least five and wounding several others, according to authorities, who said the gunman also appeared to have separately killed his two grandparents.
The shooter then took his own life, officials said.
Five school staff members, including teachers and administrators, died in the shooting around 10 a.m. at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province northwest of Bangkok, Deputy Interior Minister Polapee Suwunchwee said at the scene.
The shooter also killed his two grandparents at home prior to the school shooting, Polapee said.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, speaking after touring the school, confirmed reports that the shooter was 14 years old and killed himself. He said the boy, who lived with his grandparents, had shown signs of stress connected to school.
The gun, described by police as small and compact, was legally registered to his grandfather, he said.
About an hour after the shooting, people stood outside comforting one another as police and first responders walked around the co-educational state school, which has an enrollment of about 3,000 students ranging from 12 to 18 years old.
A witness told reporters that students hid inside a classroom while they heard gunshots from another building before police officers knocked on the door and cleared a way for them to leave the building.
Amporn Niamfuang, who owns a restaurant roughly 50 meters from the school, said the narrow road outside her shop quickly filled with fleeing students after the shooting started.
“At first I heard just one gunshot, and there was a pause,” Amporn said. “And then there were multiple continuous shots.”
“Students were running scared and pouring onto the street. Young girls were holding each other’s hands and crying. I went inside to hide."
Bangyai Hospital, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the school, said 23 people were wounded and 10 were in critical condition, with most suffering gunshot wounds. Earlier reports gave conflicting casualty numbers.
The school said all classes will be suspended from Aug. 10-14, and school staff are instructed to work from home in that period.
After the school shooting, police went to the home of the shooter’s grandparents but the door was locked and there was no response to their calls, regional police Commander Wattana Yeejeen said.
Officers broke the door lock and found both the grandparents had died of apparent gunshot wounds, Wattana said.
Police spokesperson Trairong Piwpan said the boy appeared to have shot his grandparents first before attending school as normal. After the class had started for a while, the boy began shooting from inside his classroom, before walking out and continuing shooting.
He said the boy fired more than 20 shots and more than 30 rounds were found on him after he shot himself.
Several family members of the alleged shooter, including his uncle and sisters of the grandfather who were at the family home while police investigated, said he usually kept to himself and was a good student.
The family members said they were unaware of any troubles he faced at home or school.
Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia, second only to Pakistan but far surpassing its Southeast Asian neighbors.
Data collected in 2017 by the groups Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org in their last extensive international study found civilian gun ownership in Thailand was about 15.1 guns per 100 people, compared with less than one per 100 in neighboring Malaysia.
Thailand had 3.49 deaths by firearms per 100,000 people, according to 2023 statistics published by World Population Review. That puts it well behind parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, but relatively high in Asia. Only the Philippines is higher in Southeast Asia.
In February, a 17-year-old stole a gun from police and opened fire at a public high school in southern Thailand, briefly taking people hostage in a two-hour attack that killed one person and injured two others.
A 14-year-old boy was accused of a 2023 shooting at a major Bangkok shopping mall.
Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok and Kaweewit Kaewjinda in Nonthaburi, Thailand, contributed to this report.
A parent leaves after picking his child after a shooting at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Thailand's Nonthaburi province, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
First responders and others stand inside after a shooting at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Thailand's Nonthaburi province, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
A schoolgirl cries outside her school where deaths and injuries were reported after a shooting in Thailand's Nonthaburi province, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
A crowd gathers outside a school where deaths and injuries were reported after a shooting in Thailand's Nonthaburi province, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
A schoolgirl cries outside her school where deaths and injuries were reported after a shooting in Thailand's Nonthaburi province, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
