Russia has accused the United States of aggression against Iraq and Syria aimed at preserving its global dominance and salvaging the Biden administration's "image" ahead of U.S. elections. The U.S. retorted that its military response to unjustified attacks by Iranian-backed proxies against American forces is not only legal but will continue.

The exchange came at a contentious U.N. Security Council meeting called by Russia, Syria's closest ally, where both countries also said they did not want an escalation and spillover of the Israel-Hamas war. Many council members expressed fears of a growing Mideast conflict and urged de-escalation and stepped-up peace efforts.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Egypt on Tuesday as part of his latest Middle East crisis tour, seeking a new ceasefire and "an enduring end" to the Israel-Hamas war.

Heavy strikes and fighting in Gaza killed at least 99 people overnight, mostly women and children, said the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory that has been under almost four months of bombardment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that an Israeli victory against Hamas in Gaza will deal a "fatal blow" to the Palestinian militants as well as other Iran-backed groups in the region.

"A complete victory will deal a fatal blow to the axis of evil that is Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis and of course Hamas," Netanyahu said in an address to army commanders, according to a statement issued Monday by his office.

A ship traveling through the southern Red Sea was attacked by a suspected Yemen Houthi rebel drone early on Tuesday, authorities said, the latest assault in their campaign targeting vessels over Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The attack happened west of the Yemeni port of Hodeida, and the projectile caused "slight damage" to the vessel's windows on the bridge, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said. A small vessel had been nearby the ship before the attack, it added.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said Monday that a Gaza food convoy was struck by the Israeli navy, which controls the waters off the territory.

"This morning a food convoy waiting to move into northern Gaza was hit by Israeli naval gunfire," UNRWA's Gaza chief Thomas White wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the Middle East for another crisis tour on Monday in a bid to secure a new truce in the Israel-Hamas war, as southern Gaza saw no let-up in fighting.

On his fifth trip to the region since Hamas's October 7 attack that triggered the war, Blinken is expected to visit Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt and Qatar.

Aya al-Sudani, a bubbly toddler with a toothy smile, will mark her first birthday on Tuesday, but there will be no celebration with cake and presents. The day also marks a dark memory.

On Feb. 6, 2023, a massive earthquake hit Syria and Turkey and the baby girl was pulled alive from the rubble of her family's house in the town of Jinderis in northern Syria. She was still attached by an umbilical cord to her dead mother.

A drone attack on a base housing U.S. troops in eastern Syria killed six allied Kurdish fighters late Sunday, in the first significant attack in Syria or Iraq since the U.S. launched retaliatory strikes over the weekend against Iran-backed militias that have been targeting its forces in the region.

The U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Monday the attack hit a training ground at al-Omar base in Syria's eastern province of Deir el-Zour, where the forces' commando units are trained. No casualties were reported among U.S. troops.

After a weekend of retaliatory strikes, the United States warned Iran and the militias it arms and funds that it will conduct more attacks if American forces in the Mideast continue to be targeted, but that it does not want an "open-ended military campaign" across the region.

"We are prepared to deal with anything that any group or any country tries to come at us with," said Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden's national security adviser. Sullivan said Iran should expect "a swift and forceful response" if it — and not one of its proxies — "chose to respond directly" against the U.S.

The United States and Britain have struck Iran-backed armed groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, while Israel presses ahead with its offensive against Hamas in Gaza. Here is what to know about what is happening in the region now, and why:

US ATTACKS ON GROUPS BACKED BY IRAN