U.S. forces in western Iraq were targeted in another drone attack early Tuesday morning, according to a report, marking the latest in a string of assaults on American troops in the Middle East as the Israel-Hamas war continues.

Two armed drones were used against Iraq’s Ain al-Asad airbase, Reuters reported, citing a security source and a government source. The base hosts international troops that assist Iraq in defeating a terror group called the Daesh, or the Islamic State. No casualties or damage were reported.

Tuesday’s attack would make the 25th on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17. The attacks have included a mix of one-way drones and rockets, resulting in the death of an American contractor and 24 injured troops, according to U.S. defense officials.

The attacks have increased in recent weeks as President Biden and other senior leaders continue to express support for Israel and its right to defend itself after one of the worst terror attacks in decades left more than 1,400 people dead, including 34 Americans.

According to Reuters, a group called the ‘Islamic resistance in Iraq’ endorsed the attack, which took place less than 24 hours after another missile attack from the same base in Iraq.

On Monday, five rockets landed a mile away from the al-Asad Air Base.

No injuries to American soldiers or the base were reported. Coalition forces also were not injured.

In response to earlier attacks, U.S. military forces last week conducted ‘self-defense strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups,’ Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin said Thursday.

‘The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests,’ Austin said.

He added: ‘These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17.’

Austin also called Iran out by name, explicitly blaming the country for the attacks on American forces over the past two weeks.

‘The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop,’ Austin said. ‘Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran’s proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.’

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, more than 30 Americans have been killed in the conflict, which has also claimed lives of citizens from 38 other countries.

Fox News Digital’s Liz Friden contributed to this report.

Israeli forces have eliminated a top Hamas commander who helped carry out the October 7 massacre in Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces announced Tuesday.

The IDF and the Israeli security force Shin Bet say a Tuesday airstrike killed Nassim Abu Ajina, commander of the Beit Lahia Battalion in the northern division of Hamas. IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari says Ajina was responsible for directing attacks against Israeli citizens on October 7.

‘The IDF and the Shin Bet eliminated the commander of the Beit Lahia Battalion of the Hamas terrorist organization. Fighter jets guided by intelligence information from the Amman and the Shin Bet killed last night the commander of the Beit Lahia Battalion in the northern division of Hamas, Nassim Abu Ajina, who sent the murderous attacks of Hamas on October 7 to Kibbutz Erez and the Moshav Netiv Hathara,’ Hagari wrote in a statement.

‘In the past, he commanded the Hamas air force, and took part in the development of the terrorist organization’s drone and paraglider capabilities,’ Hagari added. ‘His elimination constitutes a significant damage to the efforts of the terrorist organization Hamas in disrupting the ground operations of the IDF.’

Ajina is the latest senior Hamas commander to fall in Israel’s retaliatory campaign. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in Gaza and rejected calls for a cease-fire on Monday.

Netanyahu compared the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas to Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., saying Israel is equally justified in retaliating against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. He went on to say that Israel will continue its war against Hamas ‘until victory.’

‘Calls for a cease-fire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen,’ Netanyahu said. 

‘Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. This is a time for war. A war for our common future,’ he continued. ‘Today we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. It is a time for everyone to decide where they stand. Israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory. I hope and pray that civilized nations everywhere will back this fight.’

Israeli forces entered the second stage of their conflict with Hamas this week, greatly expanding ground operations within the Gaza Strip. Military officials have warned that the war will be long and difficult. 

Netanyahu also said Monday that the ‘horrors that Hamas perpetrated on Oct. 7 remind us that we will not realize the promise of a better future unless we, the civilized world, are willing to fight the barbarians.’ 

‘Because the barbarians are willing to fight us. And their goal is clear — shatter that promising future, destroy all that we cherish and usher in a world of fear and darkness,’ he continued.

As of Tuesday, as many as 9,400 people have been killed in the war on both sides, including at least 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers and 33 Americans.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claims more than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 110 in the West Bank, though the U.S. has dismissed the accuracy of that data.

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s relationship was a highly publicized romance that began in the 1990s during their rise to fame as pop stars. 

Below is a timeline that provides an overview of their relationship, from their initial connection as child stars to their shared fame, fashion moments, breakup and their enduring status as pop culture icons in their own right.

What happened with Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake?

The famous singer and former member of NSYNC were in a romantic relationship from 1999 to 2002, but Timberlake reportedly ended things with Spears through a text message. The period that followed was difficult for the ‘Toxic’ singer. She recounts in her memoir that she rarely ventured outside her home in the wake of their breakup.

BRITNEY SPEARS SAYS SHE HAD ABORTION WITH JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE IN BOMBSHELL MEMOIR  

About Spears’ ‘Everytime’ that she wrote about Timberlake

The pop icon regarded her song ‘Everytime’ as one of the most intimate tracks on her 2003 album, ‘In the Zone.’ This song was released in the aftermath of her widely publicized split with Timberlake in 2002 after a three-year relationship.

A new perspective on ‘Everytime’ emerged recently as Spears wrote about the song in her memoir, ‘The Woman in Me,’ which was published in October 2023. She disclosed that during their relationship, Timberlake got her pregnant and she underwent an abortion. 

Spears wrote that Timberlake was not happy about the pregnancy and that if it were up to her, she would have kept the baby. She said the event is still ‘agonizing’ to her to this day.

Early ’90s

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake both start out as members of the ‘Mickey Mouse Club,’ a popular Disney TV show.

Late ’90s

Britney and Justin’s paths cross again as they become part of two of the era’s biggest pop groups – Britney with NSYNC and Justin with the Backstreet Boys.

1998

The two young pop stars officially become a couple. Their relationship is kept relatively private at the time.

2001 Matching Denim Outfits

Britney and Justin make headlines when they attend the American Music Awards wearing iconic matching denim outfits.

2002 Breakup

The high-profile couple goes through a much-publicized breakup, which fuels media speculation and tabloid frenzy.

After their breakup, both Britney and Justin release songs that are rumored to be about each other. Justin’s ‘Cry Me a River’ and Britney’s ‘Everytime’ are often seen as musical responses to their history as a couple.

2002

Media outlets report a brief reconciliation, but it does not lead to a long-term reunion. Despite the ups and downs, Britney and Justin have since spoken about their continued friendship and mutual respect in various interviews.

Both artists went on to achieve immense success in their respective careers, becoming two of the biggest names in the music industry. Over the years, Britney and Justin have both faced personal challenges and triumphs, with their relationship largely remaining a part of their past.

Warning: This article contains graphic details that may be disturbing to some readers.

JERUSALEM, Israel – Three weeks after Hamas’ deadly massacre on multiple Israeli army bases, civilian communities and a music festival, Israel is still struggling to identify its dead, not only because of the size and scope of the surprise, multi-pronged terrorist attack, but also due to the sheer brutality carried out by thousands of Palestinian terrorists, say those working to identify the dead.

At the Shura Army Base, on the outskirts of the central Israeli city of Ramle, dead bodies and hacked-up body parts continued to pile up this week, still arriving from the country’s south in refrigerated trucks. 

At the base, army personnel and volunteers, as well as religious authorities officiating the delicate process, described seeing atrocities reminiscent of the Holocaust – imagery not often invoked in a country whose foundations grew out of the Nazi genocide against the Jews in World War II. 

‘During a war, each side tries to make a convincing argument that they are right but these kinds of atrocities we have not seen since the days of the Nazis,’ Col. Rabbi Haim Weisberg, head of the army’s rabbinic division, said in an interview. 

‘They went from house to house burning family after family,’ he said. ‘We are seeing trucks still arriving filled with body bags that contain whole families – grandparents, mothers, fathers, and even little children are being brought down from the trucks.’ 

‘In normal times, the rabbis on this base deal with dead soldiers, but this time it is abnormal,’ said Weisberg of the base that is just one among several involved in the identification process. 

‘Here we have identified hundreds of bodies and there are still many more waiting to be examined,’ he said.

Weisberg described how some of the bodies were so badly burned that regular DNA testing was useless. In many cases, dental forensic teams were called in and forced to track down the personal dental records of the victims. In some extreme cases, even those methods have not been effective. 

Along with the more than 1,400 people murdered in the attack and an additional 239 now confirmed by the Israeli army as being held captive in the Palestinian enclave, a further 100 people still remain missing. 

Since the Oct. 7 attack, the IDF’s special forces have been engaged in localized raids inside the Gaza Strip in order to retrieve dead bodies and body parts. Inside the devastated communities that sit along the border with Gaza, forensic archeologists have been called in to search for human remains. Earlier this week, a human jaw was found in a burnt-safe room. 

Families, including those who had hoped their loved ones might be still alive even if they were being held hostage by Hamas, are being informed all the time that their relatives are, in fact, among the dead. 

Speaking at Shura, Weisberg described in graphic detail how one badly charred body turned out to be two victims – a mother and a baby bound together in a deep embrace. Another victim, he said, was a pregnant woman, her stomach cut open, her fetus pulled out and beheaded. The umbilical cord was still attached. 

‘When you think about evil, you realize it is beyond comprehension when you see what this terror organization did,’ the rabbi said. 

The grisly work at Shura takes place in a large white tent surrounded by rows of refrigerated containers. Inside each dusty box are dozens of carefully wrapped bodies and smaller bags containing either babies and small children or body parts. The smell is overwhelming. 

In addition to the army personnel and the religious figures on site, there is also a team of female volunteers tasked with cleaning the bodies of murdered women. The group is part of a unique military reserve set up over a decade ago to deal with female combat soldiers who might be killed in action. 

‘They wanted to have women who could deal with the burial and the identification procedure so that it wouldn’t fall on young male soldiers and in order to protect the privacy of young women,’ said Shari, one of the volunteers who could not be named due to military guidelines. 

Shari said the group was specially trained by the army for a mass casualty event, but it was not until Oct. 7 that they were called up for service. Since then, she said, the unit has been working around the clock. 

‘I’ve seen things that no one should ever see,’ said Shari, describing how many of the dead women arrived still wearing their pajamas, their heads blown off and some booby-trapped with grenades. 

‘We saw evidence of rape,’ Shari stated. ‘Pelvises were broken, and it probably takes a lot to break a pelvis… and this was also among grandmothers down to small children. These are things we saw with our own eyes.’

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., praised the ‘Judeo-Christian tradition’ and ‘classical liberal’ values that he said shaped the West in his first international speech on Monday.

Johnson virtually addressed the inaugural conference of the Alliance For Responsible Citizenship (ARC) in London. In his remarks, Johnson outlined four questions he is using to shape an ‘optimistic vision’ for the country and the world. 

He called on the audience to consider, ‘How do we restore good governance and restore faith in our institutions,’ how to ‘re-focus on the family and strengthen the social fabric that ties us all together,’ along with ‘the best way to deliver reliable and affordable energy’ and finally: ‘how do we sell the idea that the best answers to these questions are the keys to greater human flourishing across the globe?’

‘The answers to these and other key questions will form our optimistic vision, and what we’re calling our better story,’ he said.

Johnson cited the ‘unprecedented times’ both at home and abroad – including ‘political divides’ in the U.S. and a ‘crisis of identity’ in the western world as a whole. 

He referenced international instability in Hamas’ attacks on Israel, China’s growing aggression to Taiwan and its neighbors, and the ‘war in Eastern Europe.’

Johnson called on the people gathered to seek a ‘better story’ in terms of expanding opportunity and ‘the return of responsibility’ from government to individuals.

‘And finally, and most importantly, our better story says that we, in the West, draw on an extraordinary heritage, built on the best of the classical liberal and the Judaeo-Christian tradition. These are not just political ideas; these are foundational principles which have governed our public debate for centuries and which we would do well to remember,’ he said.

Toward the end of his remarks the speaker called for a ‘radical shift in thinking about the role of government and the proper delegation of responsibility.’

His speech comes after House Republicans unanimously elected Johnson as speaker, ending three weeks of paralysis in Congress without an elected leader in its lower chamber.

‘[D]emocracy can be messy, and thankfully, I believe the United States Congress and our entire nation has re-emerged now as a beacon of liberty for the world as a result of all this,’ Johnson said toward the beginning of his speech.

‘The House is back in session as we say here. Now look, I believe God brings leaders together to address certain challenges, just as I believe the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship has been called together this week to begin the challenging work of pushing back on the failed visions that currently plague the West.’

It comes as the House is expected to consider an aid package for Israel this week.

ARC CEO, Baroness Phillipa Stroud, praised Johnson and his leadership in her own statement.

‘It’s been lovely to work with Speaker Johnson this year as we planned and developed the ARC mission. We are so excited for him as he takes on this incredible role and know his servant leadership approach, which is a fundamental principle here at ARC, will serve the American people well,’ Stroud said.

Ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., attracted a GOP primary challenger on Monday, nearly four weeks after McCarthy was removed from the House of Representatives’ top job.

In his campaign launch statement, small business owner David Giglio praised the eight House Republicans who joined every Democrat in voting to oust McCarthy as ‘courageous’ while touting himself as an ‘America First Republican.’

‘Kevin McCarthy has failed the American people. I am excited to announce my campaign to defeat Kevin McCarthy in California’s 20th Congressional District. After years of being sold out to special interests, the people of the Central Valley deserve an America First Republican fighting for them in Washington and working alongside President Donald Trump to WAGE WAR against the corrupt uniparty!’ Giglio’s statement said.

‘Kevin McCarthy was removed as Speaker by 8 courageous members of his party for failing to keep to his promises and capitulating to Joe Biden and the radical Democrats. Kevin McCarthy must be defeated.’

He’s challenging McCarthy for California’s 20th Congressional District, a safe Republican district covering part of the Golden State’s Central Valley. 

Giglio runs a business buying and selling sports cards and memorabilia, according to his campaign site.

But despite being deposed from leadership, McCarthy is a tough rival to beat. The Bakersfield Republican is a fundraising juggernaut for the GOP, raising $78 million in the first nine months of 2023 alone.

He has also sailed to victory in every election since he first won his House seat in 2006. 

McCarthy’s re-election campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

California uses a ‘jungle primary’ system in most of its elections. Rather than have separate Republican and Democratic primary races, all candidates compete at once with the top two vote-getters advancing to a general election.

While the House and Senate are headed for a showdown over combining Ukraine and Israel aid in one supplemental package, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is doubling down on his support for Ukraine.

‘This is a moment for swift and decisive action to prevent further loss of life,’ McConnell said Monday during a McConnell Center speaker series in Louisville, Kentucky. ‘And to oppose real consequences on the tyrants who terrorized the people of Ukraine and Israel, and right now, the Senate has a chance to produce supplemental assistance that will help us do exactly that.’

McConnell coupled Hamas’ attack on Israel with the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022, calling it an ‘axis of evil’ that includes China, Russia and Iran. 

‘So this is not just a test for Ukraine,’ McConnell said. ‘It’s a test for the United States and for the free world and the path toward greater security for all of us.’

Distinguished speaker Oksana Markarova, Ukraine ambassador to the U.S., echoed McConnell and said the Russia-Ukraine conflict is an ‘existential war’ that requires continued support from the U.S. 

‘Please stand a little bit longer with us, so we can win and Ukraine could not only win this, but be an answer to so many global problems,’ Markarova said. 

The U.S. has already sent more than $100 billion to Ukraine, and skepticism among American voters and Republican lawmakers is rising. According to a recent Fox News poll, voters are now more likely to feel U.S. support of Ukraine should have a limited time frame as opposed to waiting as long as it takes for it to prevail.

Just over half, 51%, think there should be a time limit, while 45% feel the U.S. should continue to support war-torn Ukraine indefinitely.

That’s a reversal from February, when 46% wanted a limit and 50% said support should last as long as it takes.

And newly-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is expected to advance a proposal this week that only includes aid to Israel. He said Sunday he would move forward with a $14.5 billion aid package for Israel when the House reconvenes later this week.

Last week, GOP Sens. Roger Marshall of Kansas, Ted Cruz of Texas, JD Vance of Ohio and Mike Lee of Utah introduced a stand-alone bill to funnel aid to Israel without tying it to Ukraine aid. 

The proposal comes after the Biden administration’s Office of Management and Budget sent Congress an emergency supplemental funding package request earlier this month totaling $106 billion to aid Ukraine and Israel and to speed up asylum processing at the southern border.

The funding proposal includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel (with $10.6 billion allocated for military aid), $13.6 billion for border protection (including measures to combat the flow of fentanyl) and significant investments in Indo-Pacific security assistance, totaling around $7.4 billion. Additionally, there is $9 billion earmarked for humanitarian aid in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.

Congress will have to agree on a package, with Republicans likely proposing several amendments before it is sent back to Biden’s office for signature.

Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report.