President Trump’s administration has opened a new front in its widening battle with the judiciary, sparring with federal courts over his picks to lead U.S. attorney’s offices around the country.

       Trump has submitted more than 30 U.S. attorney nominations to the Senate. Because of a rift between Republicans and Democrats, lawmakers haven’t confirmed any of them. That has put federal judges in the hot seat because the law requires them to appoint lead district prosecutors if Congress doesn’t. The president’s picks can serve for 120 days in an interim capacity. Once the clock ticks down, the courts must decide if his nominees can stay.

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       For three days last week, Osama Bshnak Radwan and his family cowered in their townhouse as rockets, artillery and bullets pulverized their Syrian enclave. Then, five armed men in military fatigues arrived at their gate.

       “Come out, Druze! Come out, you dogs!" the men shouted, according to Radwan, whose family belongs to the Druze religious minority that lives along Syria’s southern border.

       The gunmen eventually left the gate but they entered the house next door, where they killed more than a dozen members of his extended family, he said.

       The killings were part of a wave of sectarian violence between Sunni Muslim Bedouins and Druze that swept through Sweida, a majority Druze province, last week. The fighting prompted Israeli warplanes to strike Syrian government forces in what Israel said was an attempt to defend the Druze.

       The clashes have exposed the seams in the patchwork of tribes, religions and ethnicities in Syria, where a fragile new government, dominated by Sunni Muslims, took power eight months ago. The violence lays bare the challenges of Israel’s stated vision for Syria as a loose federation of autonomous states with a weak central government. Analysts say a lack of strong centralized rule will entrench sectarian divides.

       Even as Syria’s fledgling leadership has gained international acceptance, sanctions relief and investment, it has struggled to protect its minorities and unify the nation. The divisions have sparked concerns that the nation could descend into further conflict, driven by deeply entrenched political, ethnic and religious schisms.

       On Tuesday, a fragile cease-fire—the fourth declared in a week—appeared to be holding amid pressure from the Trump administration, Turkey and Arab nations, though residents said Sweida remained tense.

       The fighting marked at least the fourth time sectarian strife has escalated into serious violence since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December. The Wall Street Journal reconstructed the events of last week’s cascading violence through interviews with witnesses, community leaders and residents from both the Druze and Bedouin populations, as well as analysis of dozens of social-media posts and videos.

       A shared history and spiraling conflict

       For several centuries, the Bedouin and Druze, whose religion stems from an early offshoot of Shiite Islam, have lived together in southern Syria, at times sharing each other’s traditions. They fought together against French colonialist rule in the 1920s. But the two communities have also clashed over land rights and other disputes.

       The current upheaval began on July 11 when an armed Bedouin gang kidnapped a Druze vegetable merchant, stealing his wares, car and roughly $700 in local currency. The man was beaten as his captors yelled religious insults.

       The merchant’s relatives then kidnapped Bedouin tribal members in Sweida, leading Bedouin tribesmen to kidnap more than a dozen Druze. The tit-for-tat attacks escalated and by the time the merchant was released and tribal mediations began two days later, the violence had spread across Sweida province and attracted fighters from across the country.

       Hundreds of armed Arab Bedouin tribesmen descended on Sweida on July 13. They had to pass through dozens of government checkpoints, mostly run by Sunni Muslim forces, from as far away as Hama, Homs in the north, and on the other side of the country to the east near the Iraqi border in Deir Ezzour.

       There, dozens of young men were filmed entering a white trailer truck guarded by armed fighters.

       “These are the people of Deir Ezzour," one man with a regional accent said in the video, according to footage verified by Storyful, which is owned by News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal. “We are coming for you Druze."

       Syrian government forces moved into Sweida to restore order but many Druze, who say the government collaborates with the Bedouins, saw their arrival as an invasion. Druze say they distrust Syria interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and his forces—who are former al Qaeda-linked jihadists who toppled Assad—and describe their feelings of exclusion from the Sunni Muslim-dominated government.

       A spokesman for Sharaa’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment. In a July 19 televised address, Sharaa described the Bedouin tribes as "a symbol of noble values and principles," and praised their nationwide mobilization to defend their community. In the same speech, he referred to Druze militias as “outlaws."

       Israel, which has a large Druze population, said the Syrian government’s intervention was an attempt to harm Druze communities. Cultivating ties with Syria’s Druze is an essential part of Israel’s strategy to create a demilitarized buffer zone populated by Israel-friendly Druze along its border with southern Syria to prevent cross border attacks on Israeli citizens.

       The community, however, is divided over Israel’s entry into Syria and the Sharaa government. Some fear being viewed as collaborators if they support Israel, while others say Israel’s involvement keeps Syria weak. Some Druze say they want to give Syria’s new leaders a chance to unify the nation.

       When Syrian government troops reached Sweida on July 14, their tanks came under attack from Israeli warplanes. Meanwhile, Druze militias battled both government forces and Bedouin fighters. Syria’s Defense Ministry announced the death of at least six of its soldiers after an ambush by “unlawful groups," a term they use to refer to Druze militias.

       On July 15, the next day, a government-announced cease-fire fell apart after influential Druze leader Hikmat al-Hijri—who has strong ties to the Druze in Israel—refused to give it his backing, accusing government forces of continued attacks against Druze civilians.

       “We are being subjected to a campaign of complete extermination," he told his followers in a video. “We must resist this barbaric assault with every means available."

       ‘Don’t let them be the ones to kill us’

       The surge of sectarian bloodletting intensified, as artillery and rockets pounded Sweida, with hundreds of Druze and Bedouin civilians killed, according to the United Nations. Thousands of Druze residents of Sweida fled toward the Jordanian border, while others escaped to the countryside.

       At Radwan’s residence where he and his family hid, his 20-year-old daughter made a plea.

       “‘Dad, for God’s sake, if they get in and want to kill us, kill me yourself,’" Radwan recalls her saying. “‘Strangle us, hit us on the head. Just don’t let them be the ones to kill us.’"

       When the gunmen arrived at their compound, they fired and shouted “Allahu akbar," meaning God is great, Radwan recalls.

       “All of us were frozen," he says. “We couldn’t cry or make a sound. God protected us. They shut the gate and walked away."

       After gunfire next door, one of his wounded family members sent a voice message to the family WhatsApp group. “Only a few are still breathing," the family member said in the message heard by the Journal. The men killed at least 13 members of Radwan’s family that day.

       On Friday, Volker Türk, U.N. High Commissioner for human rights, said that his office had documented the attack. “Armed individuals affiliated with the interim authorities deliberately opened fire at a family gathering," he wrote. A spokesperson for Sharaa’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

       By the end of July 15, bodies were piling up outside the main hospital in Sweida, according to video footage verified by Storyful. The hospital itself was attacked by armed groups, killing and wounding medical staff, according to the U.N.

       The next day, Israel turned up the pressure, using its warplanes to strike the military headquarters in Damascus and areas near the presidential palace, taking the spiraling violence to a new phase.

       Syria’s leadership and some of Sweida’s top Druze leaders later reached a more comprehensive cease-fire deal calling for Sweida province to be integrated into the Syrian state and for Druze factions and religious leaders to maintain security. Hijri again rejected the offer. The violence raged on.

       The government later agreed to pull its forces from Sweida, following mediation with Israel conducted by the U.S., Turkey and Syria’s Arab neighbors.

       “After government forces withdrew, we began recovering the bodies," said Wajiha Hajjar, a prominent Druze lawyer in Sweida who returned to the province on Friday after having fled to the Jordanian border. “There were summary executions where people were dragged from their homes and shot in the streets." she said. “Villages in the western countryside were gone. Homes were burned down." Other residents described similar scenes.

       Sectarian violence resurges

       Once government forces pulled back, some Druze militias renewed attacks on Bedouin neighborhoods, including targeting children, according to Bedouin community leaders and residents.

       “The Druze, the Hijri, have displaced us from our homes and burned down mosques," said Nahi Sweiti, 27 years old, a Bedouin farmer and sheep herder, using a term to describe Hijri’s followers. “After the defense forces pulled out from Sweida, the armed gangs of Hijri started killing and executing people from the tribes, regardless of whether it was men, women, or children."

       More Bedouin fighters left Deir Ezzour for Sweida. Some said they were coming for Hijri.

       Sharaa said that Syrian troops had withdrawn from Sweida to de-escalate tensions but that the “horrifying campaign of violence" that had followed “constituted a clear violation of those understandings." He promised to “hold accountable all those who committed crimes and violated the law—regardless of their affiliation."

       A top Hijri militia leader denied the accusations. “There were reactions, but to kill and slaughter this did not happen," said Firoz Naeem in an interview. The government, he said, is colluding with the Bedouin to target Hijri to divide the Druze.

       “We are open to dialogue with all communities, but someone who calls you a disbeliever, an infidel, how are we going to feel safe?" Naeem added. “We have a legitimate right to defend ourselves."

       Over the weekend, after another cease-fire mediated by the U.S., Syrian forces returned to Sweida to try to restore order. Israel stopped its air campaign on the condition that the Druze would be protected. The truce remains fragile amid an emerging humanitarian crisis, including nearly 100,000 people displaced, says the U.N.

       Sectarian hate speech targeting both Druze and Bedouin remains rampant online.

       Syria’s Interior Ministry this week said the government had begun evacuating hundreds of Bedouin families from Sweida in buses toward Daraa, a province where Sunni Muslims dominate.

       Write to Sudarsan Raghavan at sudarsan.raghavan@wsj.com

       KOSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine—On the sun-drenched eastern front of this grueling war, Ukrainian drones are doing more and more jobs, from killing Russian troops to evacuating casualties to bringing dinner to foxholes.

       Around this city, some infantry from Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade have been stuck in their dugouts for three months. Rotating the troops must wait for fog and rain to block the view of Russian drones.

       So Ukraine’s air and ground drones bring the men food, water and ammunition, said Lt. Col. Yehor Derevianko, a battalion commander in the brigade. “We even deliver burgers."

       He’s been fighting Russian forces in Ukraine’s east since 2014, and says the war is evolving faster than ever. Drones are now so dominant that they force everything else—infantry, armor, artillery, logistics and even trench design—to adapt to a sky full of buzzing robots.

       The wiry commander leads the defense of his sector from a basement full of large screens under an abandoned apartment block. Men with laptops direct drone pilots to where Russian infantry are trying to infiltrate the fields and woodlands around the city.

       Members of the 93rd Brigade monitor drone footage in a basement in Kostyantynivka, eastern Ukraine.

       On one screen, the crosshairs of a reconnaissance drone fixed on a Russian soldier squatting in a bush. A small quadcopter drone closed in slowly and dropped a grenade. It missed.

       “He’s going to die of old age out there," grumbled Derevianko. The bush swayed gently in the summer breeze. A second grenade turned it into a cloud of gray smoke.

       Kostyantynivka, an industrial city once home to 67,000 people, is one of the main targets of Russia’s summer offensive. Moscow’s invasion forces are inching westward across the fertile Donetsk region, exploiting their greater numbers but losing hundreds of assault troops a day for small gains. Drones have overtaken artillery as the number-one cause of Russian fatalities, according to Ukraine’s military.

       Dystopian fantasies

       With the experienced 93rd Brigade holding firm in Kostyantynivka, the Russians are trying to outflank it via the countryside. Russian infantry must first cross miles of deadly open farmland. They try on foot or on motorbikes.

       Kostyantynivka, once home to 67,000 people, is a key target in Moscow’s summer offensive. Kostyantynivka’s train station has been destroyed by Russian shelling and drones.

       Most are picked off before they come near Ukrainian lines by first-person-view drones, known as FPVs—aircraft the size of dinner plates with four rotors, controlled through a live feed on a pilot’s goggles.

       The surviving Russians try to regroup, then assault a Ukrainian trench or dugout. “We have to hit them one by one, before they gather," said Derevianko.

       The most recent armored attack here was around New Year’s, when 14 Russian armored vehicles tried to run the gantlet of drones. Only two got close. Then the defending infantry hit them with rocket-propelled grenades.

       But Russia’s drones are also tormenting Kostyantynivka. Their fixed-wing Orlan and Zala reconnaissance drones survey the city continually. Russian FPVs connected to long fiber-optic cables, which make them immune to electronic jamming of the signal, hit anything they see, including civilians.

       Outside the tidy command basement, the city is dying. Only a fraction of its residents remain. Most shops have closed. Airstrikes scar buildings. Orange husks of burned-out civilian cars lie where they were hit by drones.

       Derevianko, of the 93rd Brigade, inside an armored vehicle.

       Army vehicles rumble about covered in grills, nets and other welded-on drone shields, looking like dystopian fantasies from a Mad Max movie.

       Pvt. Nikita Kremnov rescues wounded infantry in a Nissan Navara pickup sprayed a dull green and sporting a full-body cage with netting. Beyond the city limits, he uses a more nimble quad bike. The last mile to the trenches is now so exposed to Russian fiber-optic drones that the battalion uses only unmanned ground vehicles—drones with tires or tracks—to carry wounded men back from a foxhole.

       Kremnov was hit and wounded by a fiber-optic drone while evacuating a wounded man who was having an epileptic seizure. “There was nothing I could do about it. I had to carry on driving."

       Hiding the tanks

       Thirty miles to the southwest, the city of Pokrovsk is further down the road to destruction. It hasn’t fallen so far, but the damage is extensive. The Russian advance, like slow-moving lava, is consuming every town it touches with drones and heavy glide bombs.

       A Ukrainian unit launches an observation drone near Orikhiv, southern Ukraine.Drones are doing more and more jobs in the war.

       A T-72 tank of Ukraine’s 68th Jaeger Brigade hides under the thick summer canopy of a copse outside the city. The unit’s tanks work in shifts, rolling into Pokrovsk to fire at Russian targets from long range.

       The Soviet-era tank was captured from the Russians early in the war. Its crew call it “Lyalya," an affectionate name a small girl would give a doll. The previous night, Lyalya killed a group of Russian infantry with three direct hits on their dugout.

       In a drone war, tanks are useful only as mobile artillery pieces, said the company sergeant, who goes by the call sign Puma. Used in an assault, it wouldn’t even get near the fight, he said. “FPVs are just going to kill us."

       The tank had a narrow escape from a Russian FPV drone only days earlier. It was heading into Pokrovsk before dawn when a car’s headlights lit it up from behind. “Morons," said Puma. The tank’s electronic defenses soon sensed a drone and tried to jam it.

       Members of the 68th Jaeger Brigade on a tank hidden among the trees near Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine.A mechanic works on the tank. In a drone war, tanks are useful only as mobile artillery pieces, one company sergeant said.

       The crew used their special tactics, said Puma: “Accelerate, maneuver, pray." The drone exploded yards away.

       AI, lasers and shotguns

       In a secret bunker under acacia groves and sunflower fields, men of the Bulava drone unit are tinkering with technology to stay a step ahead of the Russians in a robotic arms race.

       Serhiy Ignatukha, the unit’s leader, holds up one kind of answer to the Russians’ fiber-optic drones. It’s an FPV armed with four 12-bore shotgun barrels.

       Recently, one such drone had a dogfight with a Russian FPV. Its shotguns missed, so it downed the enemy drone by ramming it and breaking its propellers, said a drone technician known by his call sign Udav.

       The unit is also working with Ukrainian drone manufacturers on more sophisticated solutions, including FPV-borne lasers that can cut fiber-optic cables.

       A member of the Bulava drone unit makes antipersonnel mines to be dropped from drones.

       FPVs using artificial intelligence could become the next big thing, said Udav. He held up a drone with a tiny AI chipboard. Once a pilot has selected a moving target, the drone can complete the attack autonomously from up to 700 yards away, even if jamming blocks the signal.

       Improved versions are coming out every few months. “This one is the sixth generation and it has had no failures," Udav said.

       “Previously, when you saw 15 Russian vehicles, it was scary. Now it’s fun," he said. “Sadly it’s the same for the enemy’s drone units."

       A bomb maker with the unit used a 3-D printer to make drone-dropped mines. Costing $9 each to make, the mines stick in the ground, spray out several 26-foot-long tripwires with small anchors and wait for Russian infantry.

       The Bulava unit is part of Ukraine’s Presidential Brigade, which also performs ceremonial guard duties in Kyiv but mostly became a regular combat brigade after the 2022 invasion. Ignatukha and his men saw the war changing and got into drone technology, using their own salaries to buy equipment and build their skills.

       The Bulava unit is part of Ukraine’s Presidential Brigade, which also performs ceremonial guard duties in Kyiv but mostly became a regular combat brigade after the 2022 invasion. Serhiy Ignatukha, in a green T-shirt and beard, oversees the unit’s efforts to stay a step ahead of Russian drone forces in the robotic arms race.

       “We had to think out of the box to survive," said Ignatukha. The informal unit, clad in a miscellany of T-shirts, looks more like a tech startup than a palace guard.

       No more lions

       East of Kostyantynivka, men of the Alcatraz Battalion are fighting Russia’s infantry and trying to survive its drones. The unit, part of the 93rd Brigade, is made up of convicted criminals who have signed up to be assault troops. Honorable service gets a conditional release or pardon. The first missions last year went well, said men in the unit. But drones are exacting a growing toll.

       Convicted thief Pavlo Shyptenko has survived four attacks by FPVs. He was rescuing a wounded comrade this spring when a quadcopter dropped a grenade on him. A tree branch broke the grenade’s fall, saving Shyptenko, but coin-sized bits of shrapnel still cut into his back and neck.

       Full of adrenaline, he carried the wounded man to a car and only noticed a terrible pain when he sat down to drive, he said. Now he’s telling new recruits what to do if there’s a drone above them.

       “Stay still and wait for the grenade drop. Then you have three to five seconds to run away," he said, proudly wearing an Alcatraz unit T-shirt. If a suicide drone is trying to crash into you, wait and dive out of the way, he said.

       The Alcatraz Battalion interviews applicants for suitability, and doesn’t take rapists or serial killers. But it has recruited some murderers. “We are also murderers," said the deputy battalion commander, a professional officer known by the call sign Daredevil.

       On a balmy evening, men from Alcatraz trained in the woods, practicing digging covered shelters capable of withstanding FPV hits. “This one is for a funeral," Daredevil told the diggers of a weakly protected foxhole.

       Daredevil carries a scar over his right eye from when a Russian shot him in a basement gunfight early in the war. “We came out of that basement. They didn’t."

       It’s a different war today, he said. “The lions from 2022-2023, who were real warriors, no longer exist," he said. Heavy losses have reduced the quality of soldiers on both sides. “The men now are not capable of the same feats. Now it’s a war of drones."

       Ukrainian soldiers have had to adapt to a sky full of drones. Drones are exacting a toll on Ukrainian troops.

       Write to Marcus Walker at Marcus.Walker@wsj.com

       The Centre and states are close to agreeing on folding the GST compensation cess within the broader goods and services tax (GST), two people aware of discussions in the government said. The two sides are also close to reaching an agreement on how to utilize the surplus cess collected, likely by dividing between them.

       Without a decision on its future, the compensation cess levied on luxury goods and tobacco, which is expected to fetch ？1.67 trillion this fiscal year, clocks out at the end of March next year after an eight-year run.

       However, there is no consensus yet on scrapping the 12% GST slab, one of the two people said. However, the Centre's view is that moving most goods in that slab to 5% will help widen the tax base, making up for the revenue loss in due course. The decision may involve some give-and-take between the Centre and states, the person said.

       Also Read | GST officers detect ？15,851 cr fraudulent ITC claims in April-June, 3,558 fake firms uncovered

       “Revenue collection should not be seen merely from the lens of tax rate. It is a function of the tax rate and the tax base. Widening of the tax base will likely improve revenue receipts despite lower rates," the person said on the condition of anonymity.

       The GST Council meets next in August end or September, after the monsoon session of Parliament. Queries emailed to the finance ministry and the GST Council Secretariat on 16 June seeking comments for the story remained unanswered.

       The compensation cess was introduced to compensate states for their revenue losses due to the transition to GST. Its original five-year period ended in 2022; however, it was extended till 2026 to help states. The cess ranges from 1% in the case of certain motor vehicles to 290% in the case of mixtures used in smoking pipes. On coal, it is ？400 a tonne and on sports utility vehicles, it is 22%.

       The proposed move to scrap the 12% slab may have a short-term impact on revenue; however, subsuming the compensation cess into GST is expected to soften the blow.

       Also Read | Simplify GST: It’s time for a single all-India identification mandate

       The Centre had borrowed ？2.69 trillion during the pandemic outbreak to support struggling states. Compensation cess revenue was used to make the loan repayments, which conclude before the end of this year. After the repayment, the Centre would be left with a cess surplus about ？40,000 crore, as per official calculations. Minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary is leading a ministerial panel that will advise the Council about the future of the cess, especially, how to recharacterize it in a new avatar.

       Central and state GST authorities have been holding routine drives against fake entities claiming input tax credits and have been stepping up the reporting requirements under the tax system that makes it hard to evade taxes.

       Experts said the tax rate rationalization will deliver a stimulus to the economy.

       “The government has been trying to boost private consumption, which was the objective behind the income tax relief offered to middle-income earners in this year’s budget. The RBI has also been easing monetary policy to boost consumption demand and stimulate growth. Perhaps an immediate and direct way to achieve this is a GST rate reduction. GST compensation cess could offer a cushion against any short-term impact on inter-state distribution of revenue receipts due to the rate reduction," said Suranjali Tandon, associate professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP).

       Also Read | Luxury cess may fold into GST, 12% slab likely to go

       At present, goods in the 12% slab include butter, cheese, packaged drinking water in 20 litre bottles, jams and marmalades, sausages and similar products, diabetic foods, glucometer and strips, bicycles, wooden furniture and solar power-based devices.

       Unlike the pre-GST tax regime, the new indirect tax system is transparent, making the total tax incidence on a product visible to the final consumer. This also puts pressure on policymakers to lower the tax rate.

       In this financial year, GST collection of the central government (CGST) is expected to grow at 11.3%, showing a tax buoyancy of 1.1, implying revenue growth faster than nominal economic growth.

       Iran suffered a significant setback when Israel killed top military leaders and the U.S. struck its nuclear facilities, but a pattern of high-value weapons seizures shows Tehran is making new efforts to arm its militia allies across the Middle East.

       Forces allied with Yemen’s internationally recognized government this week intercepted a major shipment of missiles, drone parts and other military gear sent to Houthi rebels on the Red Sea coast. Syria’s new government says it has seized a number of weapons cargoes, including Grad rockets—for use in multiple-launch systems mounted on trucks—along its borders with Iraq and Lebanon.

       The Lebanese army, meanwhile, has seized shipments brought in across its border with Syria that include Russian antitank missiles favored by Hezbollah.

       “Iran is rebuilding its presence in the Levant by sending missiles to Hezbollah and weapons from Iraq to Syria," said Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Washington Institute for Near East Policy with expertise in Iran’s militia allies.

       Yemeni forces said Wednesday they had seized a record number of Iranian missiles destined for the Houthis. The shipment was intercepted by the National Resistance Force, a military coalition aligned with the Yemeni government. The U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for America’s military operations in the Middle East, said it was the National Resistance Force’s largest seizure of advanced Iranian conventional weapons—750 tons of cruise missiles, antiship and antiaircraft missiles, warheads, targeting components and drone engines.

       The shipments were hidden aboard a ship called a dhow, beneath declared cargoes of air conditioners. They included Iranian-developed Qader antiship missiles and components for the Saqr air-defense system, which the Houthis have used to bring down U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones.

       Previous seizures by the Yemeni and U.S. governments generally yielded small arms or spare parts rather than fully assembled missiles.

       The seizure comes just weeks after a cease-fire stopped Israel’s 12-day air campaign against Iran—a series of attacks that demonstrated Iran’s vulnerability despite the arsenal of missiles and militia allies it had built up to protect itself.

       The U.S. joined in the attack by bombing key Iranian nuclear facilities. This spring, the U.S. pounded Houthi positions for nearly two months in an effort that ended with a cease-fire and left the Houthis looking for more high-end hardware.

       “The timing and scale of this shipment strongly suggest Iran is moving quickly to replenish Houthi stockpiles depleted by U.S. airstrikes," said Mohammed al-Basha, founder of U.S.-based Middle East security advisory Basha Report. It shows Tehran wants to “sustain their high operational tempo targeting Israel and commercial maritime traffic," he said.

       Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei on Thursday said any claim Tehran had sent weapons to Yemen was baseless.

       The resupply effort might already be yielding results.

       Last week, Houthi fighters used rocket-propelled grenades, missiles and drones to sink two merchant ships in the Red Sea, killing at least three crew members and taking others hostage. The militant group has also been lobbing ballistic missiles at Israel for weeks, though most are intercepted.

       While the seized cargoes transited through the East African country of Djibouti, which sits across the mouth of the Red Sea from Yemen, the National Resistance Force found multiple documents in Farsi indicating their origin was Iran. The documents included a manual for cameras used to guide antiaircraft missiles and a quality certificate attached to a missile fin manufactured by an Iranian company.

       Iran’s efforts to move weapons to Hezbollah have been extensive as well. The militant group was forced into a cease-fire last fall after an Israeli campaign of covert operations, airstrikes and a ground incursion wiped out most of its arsenal and leadership.

       There has been “an intensifying trend in recent months of smuggling attempts via or originating from Syria" to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, said Michael Cardash, the former deputy head of the bomb disposal division at Israel’s national police.

       The arms pipeline has been crimped by the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, which was aligned with Iran, and its replacement by a hostile government. Traffickers now have to bring in arms in small shipments after previously sending truckloads, said Cardash, who is now in charge of explosives research at Israeli security consulting firm Terrogence.

       In one example in June, the Interior Ministry of the new Syrian government announced it had seized Russian-made Kornet antitank missiles en route to Lebanon in a truck transporting cucumbers. In May, the General Security branch intercepted Iranian-made air-defense missiles near the Lebanese border, according to media outlets affiliated with the new Syrian government.

       Despite extensive efforts to keep Hezbollah from restocking its battered arsenal, the militant group, like the Houthis, has had some success. It manufactures its own drones and medium-range rockets, and has managed to restructure its smuggling networks to a degree and smuggle in some Kornets and other sophisticated weaponry, a person familiar with the group’s operations said.

       Write to Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com