Israel bombed a number of Syrian air defences after one of its fighter jets was brought down during a raid over Syria. The response was the “most significant attack” of its kind against Syria since the 1982 Lebanon war. The F-16 jet went down during a mission that followed an Iranian drone launched into Israeli territory. The two pilots parachuted to safety.
Meanwhile, Kurdish forces defending the enclave of Afrin in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) shot down a Turkish helicopter on Saturday in the southeastern Hatay province. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed the shoot-down in a speech in Istanbul and said the Kurdish forces would would “pay a more than heavy price.”
Lastly, a top religious cleric in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia said Saudi women should not have to wear the abaya. Sheikh Abdullah al-Mutlaq, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, said women should dress modestly, but this did not have to mean wearing the abaya like the 90% of Muslim women around the world. Saudi women are currently required to wear the garment by law.
