The death toll from airstrikes near Yemen’s capital has increased to 44, most of them women and children, health authorities from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels said overnight. Separately, Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday dismissed comments by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Iranian demands for ending the war have been “ridiculous.”

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Monday. Read our full coverage here.

Houthis say death toll from airstrikes increases to 44

The death toll from Saturday’s airstrikes that hit homes near Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, has increased to 44, most of them women and children, Houthi health authorities said late Sunday.

The strikes on the village of al-Shariya, east of Sanaa, wounded 40 others, including eight children and nine women, said Anees al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run Health Ministry. The dead included 21 children and 10 women, he said, making the strikes one of the deadliest attacks in the latest bout of violence in Yemen’s yearlong civil war.

Al-Asbahi said rescue teams were still searching the area for missing people, raising fears that the death toll could rise. He blamed Saudi Arabia for the strikes.

On Monday, the Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed three facilities belonging to the Houthis, including a factory for assembling ballistic missile components, a chemical plant producing solid rocket fuel and an electronics workshop assembling missile systems. It did not specify their locations or provide further details.

Saudi Arabia says east-west pipeline targeted in Medina region

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said the attack Monday in the Medina region caused a “limited fire” that was quickly extinguished. Operations were not affected and there were no casualties, the ministry said. It did not identify who was behind the attack.

The Houthis, who have repeatedly targeted Saudi infrastructure and exchanged attacks with the kingdom in recent months, did not immediately comment.

The incident came a day after falling debris from intercepted missiles damaged several floors of a Saudi Aramco office tower in Riyadh’s financial district. The Houthis subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack on the capital.

Syrian foreign minister denies plans to send fighters to Yemen

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said Monday that his country has not deployed forces to Yemen to fight the Houthi rebels and has no “immediate plan to do so.”

The Associated Press reported Sunday that Syria is preparing to send an initial group of 600 special forces fighters to Saudi Arabia, where they would be deployed on the country’s border with Yemen.

Speaking at a press conference in Damascus, al-Shibani did not directly address the reports of plans to send fighters to Saudi Arabia but said “any military operation outside our borders would certainly be announced and discussed publicly. It would not be carried out in secret.”

US Defense Secretary says Iran ‘devastated’ from ‘necessary’ but unpopular war

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the conflict was necessary because “someone had to confront the Iranian regime’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.”

He repeated a line that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters a day earlier, saying, “It doesn’t have to be necessarily popular, but it can be necessary.”

Hegseth, who faces possible impeachment, also argued that “Iran is devastated,” even as the Islamic Republic has been able to keep striking military bases in the Middle East used by the U.S. as well as commercial ships in the disputed Strait of Hormuz.

He said the next steps in the war are up to Trump, including telling Iran: “‘Hey, we’re done, and we’re going to watch your nuclear material. You better not move it.’”

Iran’s foreign ministry dismisses Rubio comments

Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday dismissed remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said Sunday that Iranian demands for ending the war had sometimes been “outrageous and ridiculous.”

At a briefing, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said U.S. strikes during peace talks earlier this year and last year had been “illogical and ridiculous,” not Iran’s demands, which include an end to the U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports, the lifting of sanctions, the unfreezing of Iranian assets and compensation for war damage.

On Sunday, Rubio said President Donald Trump prefers a diplomatic solution, but “Iranian demands are simply not just unacceptable, but in some cases outrageous and ridiculous and really not realistic.”