Attacks in Syria and Iraq are raising tensions in a region already on edge
Iran accused Israel of launching an airstrike on the Syrian capital Damascus on Saturday, killing senior Iranian military figures. This is the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on officials from Iran and two of its allies, Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran vowed to retaliate, raising fears of deeper regional unrest due to the war in Gaza.
In addition, several U.S. troops in Iraq were injured Saturday when their air base in the western part of the country came under heavy rocket or missile fire from what U.S. officials said were Iranian-backed militias. It was the most serious of about 140 rocket attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria in recent months. The two incidents underlined the growing volatility in the Middle East. Since October 7, when Hamas, an ally of Iran, invaded Israel and carried out its terror attack. Israel has responded with a brutal war in Gaza. Across the region, a dizzying series of strikes and counterattacks threaten to turn the conflict into a broader war.
In the past week alone, the list of attacks and reprisals was long and daunting: Iran fired missiles into Iraq, Syria and Pakistan; Pakistan responded by attacking Iranian territory. Turkey has hit Kurdish targets in northern Iraq and Syria; Hamas fired rockets at Israel; Israel continued to bomb southern Gaza and attacked southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants have fired rockets into Israel in recent months. Houthi militants in Yemen targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, and the United States retaliated with seven rounds of attacks on Houthi targets.
Some of those attacks had no apparent connection to the war in Gaza. But together they underscored the danger that a particularly deadly strike – an accident or a deliberate provocation – could lead to irreversible escalation and wider conflict.
Among those killed in the attacks in Damascus on Saturday were Hojatallah Omidvar, the head of intelligence in Syria for the overseas branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the Quds Force, and his deputy, according to Iranian news media and an Israeli defense official.
Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, condemned the attack “high-ranking martyrs,” as he put it, saying in a statement that Iran “reserves the right to respond” at the appropriate time and place.
The Israeli defense official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters, would not say who was behind the attack but did not deny it was Israel.
The Revolutionary Guards said in a statement published online that five of its members who were in Syria as military advisors were killed along with several Syrians. Syria is a close ally of Iran and a conduit for Iranian arms supplies to its allies, especially Hezbollah.
Israel has been engaged in a shadow war with Iran for years, carrying out covert attacks and targeted killings aimed at crippling Iran's nuclear and military capabilities and its supply lines to auxiliaries in the region.
The Quds Force has played a key role in supporting these allies, including the Houthis in Yemen, as well as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
But after the outbreak of war in Gaza following the October 7 attacks, Iran kept a low profile, content to operate through its allies and at times denying any involvement in their attacks. But after a series of Israeli killings of Iranian security officials and others, Tehran recently changed course, launching attacks with its own forces and publicly labeling them as revenge attacks.
Tensions began to escalate in December when Iran accused Israel of killing a high-level soldier, Brigadier General. General Sayyed Razi Mousavi, a senior adviser to the Revolutionary Guards, launches a rocket attack in Syria. Israel declined to comment directly on the accusation.
General Mousavi is believed to have helped oversee the shipment of rockets and other weapons to Hezbollah, which has been trading rocket and artillery fire with Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
A few days later, an Israeli attack killed Hamas's deputy political leader, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut, Lebanon. That was followed by a suicide attack by the Sunni terrorist group ISIS, which killed almost a hundred people in the Iranian city of Kerman. Finally, the United States assassinated a senior commander of an Iran-affiliated militia in Baghdad.
Tehran responded first by sending its own commandos to seize an oil tanker off the coast of Oman. It launched a rocket attack on the city of Erbil in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region this week, saying it targeted an Israeli “spy center.” Iran said its attacks last week were, among other things, retaliation for the killing of General Mousavi.
Israel has not responded to the claim that the target in Erbil was an Israeli spy post. But Iraqi officials rejected the accusation, saying only civilians had been killed, including a businessman, his one-year-old daughter and her babysitter. Iran has also hit targets in Syria and Pakistan with missiles in the past week, signaling to hardline supporters at home that it will respond to threats.
Iran's recent attacks were also notable because they appeared to use one of the country's most advanced, longest-range missiles, the Kheibar Shekan.
Analysts said the use of that particular missile, when a less advanced missile could have been just as effective, was a sign that Iran was both demonstrating the range and sophistication of its latest missiles and strengthening its reputation as a major arms supplier, including to Russia . in the war in Ukraine.
So far, Iran appears to be holding back from a major escalation that could further fuel an intensification of the regional conflict, which centers on the war between Iran-backed Hamas and Iran's regional arch-enemy Israel. Analysts say Iran wanted the attacks to be measured, flexing its muscles without getting into a direct fight with Israel, the United States or their allies.
The Houthis in Yemen are at the center of escalating tensions on another regional front. The group has attacked ships in the Red Sea and recently provoked air strikes by the United States and Britain.
On Saturday, the US Central Command said US forces had carried out airstrikes against a Houthi anti-ship missile “targeted and prepared to launch” in the Gulf of Aden. It was the seventh time in ten days that the United States has hit Houthi targets in Yemen.
The attacks have so far failed to stop the Houthis from attacking shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that connect to the Suez Canal. The Iran-backed group says it will continue its attacks until Israel halts its military campaign in Gaza.
President Biden said Thursday that U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis will continue even though they have not halted the group's attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
“Are they stopping the Houthis? No,” Mr. Biden said. “Are they going to continue? Yes.”
Reporting was contributed by Eric Schmitt of Washington, Alissa J. Rubin of Iraq, Ronen Bergman of Tel Aviv, Lara Jakes of Rome, David E. Sanger of Berlin and Thomas Fuller of San Francisco.