These incidents also highlight the potential for miscalculation as military action accelerates and the United States continues to support its close ally Israel, whose response to deadly Hamas attacks on October 7 killed more than 24,000 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them Palestinian civilians. It galvanized opposition throughout the Arab world to Israel, its main backer.
US Central Command said in a statement that Tuesday's strike on the Iran-linked Houthi movement in Yemen, the third attack of its kind in the past week, targeted four sites where the rebels were preparing to launch missiles at commercial shipping ships.
The Houthis, one of the powerful factions in Yemen's ongoing civil war, have portrayed their campaign against commercial ships crossing the area, which has included more than 30 drone and missile attacks since November, as retaliation for Israel's war in Gaza.
The group almost immediately made good on its pledge to continue its campaign, launching an anti-ship ballistic missile that hit the Maltese-flagged ship M/V Zografia. No one was hurt and the ship continued its journey.
The recent violence has also revived concerns about armed networks not involved in the violent reaction of Iran-linked groups to the Israeli operation in Gaza. A rare airstrike by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Syria on Monday targeted what Tehran said were sites linked to the Islamic State, the extremist group that claimed responsibility for a deadly double bombing this month in the Iranian city of Kerman.
While the action appears to be unrelated to recent violence between Israel and the United States against Iranian-sponsored militants, Iran also carried out a strike on what Iranian officials described as an Israeli spy site in Iraqi Kurdistan, a move that angered officials in Baghdad and Erbil. , the capital of the semi-autonomous northern region.
Gerald Feierstein, a former US ambassador to Yemen who is now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said Iran seemed determined, like the United States, to stay out of direct conflict with the US military. And its allies. He pointed to the fact that the Lebanese Hezbollah group, Iran's largest and most powerful proxy, has not unleashed the full force of its massive missile arsenal against Israel in recent months. On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched dozens of cross-border strikes on southern Lebanon.
Likewise, while Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria launch regular attacks on US military installations in both countries, they are often located far from their alleged targets and cause limited damage. In what appeared to be a parallel American attempt at restraint, American retaliatory strikes were limited in scope, although an air strike in Baghdad earlier this month killed a militia commander accused of organizing violence against Americans deployed there.
Feierstein said that while Iran appears determined to refrain from direct intervention in the situation in Gaza, the current confrontation between the United States and the Houthis may serve Tehran's interests.
He added: “Their partner in the ‘Axis of Resistance’ stands on behalf of the Palestinians, but does not cross American red lines,” referring to a loose coalition of groups that, along with Iran, seek to repel American influence. In the region. “It is unlikely that this will lead us into conflict with Iran directly, so everyone can live at the level they are at now.”
It is unclear how long the status quo can be maintained. The United States has deployed additional military assets to the Middle East in the wake of Hamas's attacks on Israel, hoping to deter Iran-linked militant groups from seizing the opportunity to strike their common enemy Israel and its patron the United States. The US military also established a multinational effort to deter naval attacks that have significantly disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said on Tuesday that when the United States launched dozens of strikes in Yemen last week, senior American officials “fully anticipated” that the Houthis “may conduct some retaliatory strikes.”
He said that while the United States believes it cannot allow attacks on commercial ships, it is not seeking war with the Houthis.
“We're not looking to expand this,” Kirby said. He added: “They still have time to make the right decision, which is to stop these reckless attacks.”
As part of its evolving response to the Houthis' actions, the Biden administration plans to return the Yemeni group to the list of global terrorist organizations, two people familiar with the decision said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity earlier than expected. Management announcement. The decision to designate the Houthis as Specially Designated Global Terrorists represents a reversal of a step the administration took in early 2021 out of concern about worsening the already dire humanitarian situation in Yemen.
US forces also sought to halt the Houthi campaign in part by preventing the supply of weapons from Iran to Yemen. On Thursday, US Navy Seals boarded a small ship in the Arabian Sea and found Iranian-made missile warheads and related weapons components. Two soldiers were lost at sea during the operation, prompting a search and rescue operation that was still underway on Tuesday.
The Revolutionary Guard said in a statement that the Iranian strikes in Iraq hit the “spy headquarters” of the Israeli intelligence agency (Mossad), which was being used to plan “terrorist” acts against Iran. Iraqi and Kurdish officials deny these allegations. The Israeli Prime Minister's press office refused to comment on Iran's assertions.
The Iraqi National Security Advisor said that he visited the home of one of the victims of the raid. Qassem Al-Araji said: “It turns out that the allegations about targeting the Mossad headquarters have no basis in truth.” In a post on Xthe social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that Iraq recalled its ambassador from Tehran after the strikes. The ministry also said Iran's top diplomat in Baghdad was summoned over the attack and was handed a “protest note.”
US officials said that no American personnel were injured in the strikes, but they condemned Iran's actions.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement: “We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes, which undermine Iraq’s stability.”
The risks of a regional war were underlined on Tuesday by a series of Israeli air strikes on Lebanon, marking an escalation in the ongoing standoff between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. Also on Tuesday, Iran launched air strikes on what it said were militant targets in Pakistan. The Pakistani government condemned the action of its neighbor, saying that civilians were killed.
Michael Birnbaum, Kyle Melnick and Neha Masih contributed to this report.
