![]() ![]() These include Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba, and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada. Tehran wields significant influence on several Shiite militias closely tied to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Since the war began, however, Washington has significantly strengthened its military posture in the region, having moved roughly 1,200 US service members, alongside thousands of others aboard Navy carrier strike groups and a Marine Expeditionary Unit roughly 2,000 people strong.Īnd in some places, including Iraq and Syria, the US military presence overlaps that of Iran and its allies.Īs tensions across the region rise, here is where Iran or its allies are present, where US forces are stationed and where both sides have conducted military operations since the start of the Israel-Hamas war: It already had a sizeable military footprint in the region before the war, with over 30,000 troops. ![]() The US, having been trying to pivot away from the Middle East for years, finds itself drawn back into the region. And it has built ties with and helped fund Hamas, which launched its war on Israel on October 7. Those groups have become more belligerent of late, especially Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have disrupted a vital international waterway, wreaking havoc on global trade and prompting Western states to intervene. ![]() The Islamic Republic, which has long opposed the presence of US forces in what it considers to be its backyard, has spent the past few decades building a network of Islamist, anti-Western and anti-Israel militias that it trains, funds and arms. Related article Who are the Houthis and why are they attacking ships in the Red Sea? Pakistan responded with retaliatory strikes.Īrmed men stand on the beach as the Galaxy Leader commercial ship, seized by the Houthis in November, is anchored off Yemen's coast, December 5, 2023. Tehran has also struck what it said were anti-Iran groups in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan. The US has attacked Iranian-backed groups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, while Iran-linked groups have targeted American personnel in Iraq and Syria. So far, the US and Iran have avoided directly confronting each other. ![]() US officials have repeatedly said they do not want to see the increasingly high tensions across the Middle East broaden into a regional war. But the direct intervention of both Iran and the US in recent weeks, as well as the death of US troops, has heightened fears that the proxy conflict between the two could turn into a direct one. An umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq said it had attacked US positions along the Jordan-Syria border, but Iran denied any direct involvement in the strikes.Īcross the region, the fighting has largely been confined to tit-for-tat attacks between Iran-backed militias on one side and the US, Israel and its allies on the other. US President Joe Biden cast the blame on Iran-backed groups, promising retribution. It was the first time US troops were killed by enemy fire in the Middle East since the beginning of the Gaza war. Over the weekend, three US service members were killed and more than 30 were injured in a drone attack on a small US outpost in Jordan, according to US officials. The war between Israel and Hamas has already spilled over to the wider Middle East, with prospects of a confrontation between regional and world powers becoming ever more likely. ![]()
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