Israel's defense minister met with the Jordanian king on Wednesday, both sides said, part of a reset of ties between the two countries.

According to Benny Gantz' office, the two discussed "security and policy topics." Gantz "welcomed the expansion of relations between Jordan and the current Israeli government."

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group said one of its bases in northeast Syria came under fire on Wednesday from Iran-backed groups, the latest in a string of attacks.

The development came one day after coalition forces said they had foiled a rocket attack on the same base, located in a part of Syria under the control of Kurdish forces.

An influential Saudi cleric who once served for years as head of the kingdom's Shariah courts and whose ultraconservative views sparked outcry died on Wednesday, leaving behind a legacy that mirrored the kingdom's decades-long slide toward Wahhabism.

His family announced his death on Twitter, saying 90-year-ol Sheikh Saleh bin Mohammed al-Luhaidan died after battling an illness that was not disclosed. His funeral is taking place Wednesday in line with Islamic tradition of immediate burial.

A Katyusha rocket struck an Iraqi military base hosting U.S. troops at Baghdad's international airport on Wednesday, an Iraqi military statement said.

No damage or casualties were reported from the attack, the third in as many days since Monday's anniversary of a U.S. airstrike that killed top Iranian general Qassim Soleimani in Baghdad two years ago.

Two armed drones targeting an air base in western Iraq were shot down on Tuesday, an official of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group said. 

About 200 fighters have been killed in fresh clashes near the strategic Yemeni city of Marib, military and medical sources said Tuesday, as the seven-year war witnesses a surge in violence.

Two Israeli pilots were killed when a navy helicopter crashed off Israel's Mediterranean coast late Monday near the northern city of Haifa, the Israeli military announced.

The helicopter was conducting a training flight when it crashed. A third crew member, an aerial observer, was moderately injured and evacuated to a hospital, the military said early Tuesday. "After extensive resuscitation efforts, the two pilots were declared dead."

Two Tunisian soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash on Monday, one instantly and the other of his wounds in hospital, the defense ministry said.

Yemen's Houthi rebels seized a ship in the Red Sea, armed drones targeted Baghdad's international airport, and hackers hit a major Israeli newspaper Monday - a string of assaults that showed the reach of Iran-allied militias on the second anniversary of America's killing of a top Iranian general.

All three coincided with a massive memorial in Tehran for Qassem Soleimani, the general killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020 in Iraq. Iran's hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi demanded former U.S. President Donald Trump be "prosecuted and killed."

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said he will visit Saudi Arabia next month, the Turkish leader's first since the 2018 murder of Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.