For days, American officials had been telegraphing that retaliatory strikes would come, after Sunday’s deadly attack on a base in Jordan.
This marks an escalation of the violence in the Middle East, although US authorities insist they do not want to trigger a wider war in the region.
American officials have suggested the US response will be carried out over several days and hit Iranian personnel and interests in Iraq and Syria, where the first strikes have been conducted.
As expected, infrastructure and weapons were the initial targets.
With the element of surprise gone, top leaders would have certainly left their positions, which could have been part of the US strategy to limit casualties and, as a result, reduce tensions.
“If you know you’re a target, you simply disappear,” an Iraqi official told me.
It is not clear how – or if – Iran or the groups it supports will respond.
Apart from the militias in Iraq and Syria, Iran also supports the Houthis in Yemen, who have targeted commercial vessels in the Rea Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has attacked positions in Israel almost every day.
They are part of what Iran calls Axis of Resistance.
Iranian officials have given indications that they do not want a direct confrontation with the US, something that would be catastrophic for the country and an existential threat to the regime in Tehran.
Source link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-68144478