Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said Thursday that the flydubai co-pilot, suspected of an attack stopped by the captain and passengers on a flight bound for Israel, has been transferred from the kingdom to the United Arab Emirates.

The plane's captain and the co-pilot "after their health improved and the medical team cleared them, left the Kingdom heading to Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning... accompanied by the Emirati security team", the ministry said in a statement, adding that the initial investigation showed the co-pilot attacked the captain.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis struck an electricity distribution station in the holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-led coalition said Thursday, sparking strong condemnation from the Muslim world.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Thursday that Iran will be "hit very hard" if it is found to be linked to a pilot's attack on a flydubai flight to Israel.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said in a Time magazine interview published Thursday that it’s “possible” he’ll ramp up bombing in Iran after the Nov. 3 midterms.

When pressed further by Time journalists, Trump continued: “I can’t tell you that because look, you know, you’re asking, where are you going to bomb?”

The United Arab Emirates announced on Thursday it was probing a possible "terrorist" link to an apparent attack by a pilot on board a flight to Israel that saw passengers reroute the plane to stop it from crashing.

The Trump administration is removing Syria from a list of countries that are not allowed to purchase or import U.S. weaponry, a step that is part of a monthslong process of easing sanctions on the new government in Damascus and its leaders.

In a notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register, the State Department said it was amending its International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, so that Syria no longer was among the nations subject to a policy of denial for licenses and other approvals needed for the sale of U.S. weapons and munitions.

Saudi Arabia turned down multiple requests by Israel to send its own planes to retrieve passengers from a diverted flydubai flight, a Saudi source with knowledge of the matter told AFP Thursday.

"They asked to send military warplanes. 2 or 3 direct to Tabuk airport,” the source told AFP. "Turned down."

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday welcomed the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq as a "historic victory" and called for American troops to leave the Middle East.

The Revolutionary Guards "congratulate the proud nation of Iraq, the united front of the Islamic Resistance, and the revolutionary fighters of the Islamic world on this historic victory," the IRGC said in a statement carried by their official media.

The identity and motive of the Omani copilot who stabbed his captain on a flight to Israel, causing the plane to plummet dangerously and forcing it to land in Saudi Arabia, remained unknown on Thursday as investigators raced to learn more.

Israeli passengers on the FlyDubai flight carrying 174 people from the United Arab Emirates to the Israeli city of Tel Aviv have described how the bloodied Indian captain managed to open the cockpit door to let them in before they grappled with the copilot and stabilized a descent so sharp that the plane's rudder was torn away.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Thursday he would present "heroism" awards to four Israelis who helped overpower a flydubai co-pilot and prevented him from crashing the plane they were on.

"You put yourselves at risk to save others and prevented a terrible disaster. Today, the whole world saw the beautiful and courageous face of Israeli society," Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, said in a statement.