A visit by the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force to Baghdad has led to a pause in attacks on U.S. troops by Iran-aligned groups in Iraq, multiple Iranian and Iraqi sources told Reuters, saying it was a sign Tehran wants to prevent a broader conflict.
On February 9, 2024, the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published[1] a lengthy article reviewing activity of Iran-backed militias in Iraq since the start of the ongoing war in Gaza. This report is based on the article.
Introduction
The Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, has reinvigorated jihadi groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda, which are reprioritizing the cause of “Palestine” and the fight against the “Jews” and their “Crusader” allies as a key foundation of their messaging campaigns which aims at expanding their global threat landscape.
Resistance Axis
News about the Iran-led proxy network in the Middle East that Tehran calls the “Resistance Axis.”
A Second Hezbollah
Iran boasts about the Houthis’ increasing the cost of Israel’s war in Gaza and pressuring the Biden administration to push for a permanent ceasefire. Take the newspaper Jam-e Jam’s January 17 article, for instance. The paper, which is published by the State Radio and Television Organization, claims that the Houthis have extended their unbroken eight-year track record of victory against Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and their Western supporters by making the Red Sea unsafe for Iran’s enemies. “The Houthis have humiliated America and created panic in Israel,” the article states.
The destruction of civilian infrastructure in Iran was considered a ‘major escalation’ in the shadow war between Tel Aviv and Tehran
Israel was behind clandestine strikes on two critical gas pipelines inside Iran this week, which disrupted the flow of gas to millions of citizens in the middle of winter, according to western officials and a military strategist affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who spoke with the New York Times (NYT).
Latest Developments
The United States conducted a cyberattack against an Iranian spy ship operating near the Red Sea earlier this month, according to February 15 reports. The news comes near the third anniversary of the Biden administration’s removal of the Houthi rebels from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). The ship, MV Behshad, is suspected of gathering intelligence on international commercial vessels traveling through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea and transmitting it to Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen. The intelligence then likely assisted the Houthis in targeting ships traveling through the area. According to the reports, the U.S. cyberattack occurred on February 2, the same day that U.S. forces conducted airstrikes against Iran-backed Shiite terrorists in Iraq and Syria. Those airstrikes were in retaliation for the January 28 attack on U.S. troops based in Jordan, which killed three American soldiers.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has enhanced its naval capabilities with the successful launch of a long-range ballistic missile from a military vessel.
IRGC Commander Major General Hossein Salami announced on Monday that the long-range ballistic missile has been successfully fired from an IRGC Navy’s military vessel in a coordinated mission involving the IRGC Navy and Aerospace Force.
The US and UK launched strikes on Houthi-controlled Hodeidah province in Yemen on Tuesday, as rights organizations and government officials accused the militia group of exploiting the Gaza conflict to recruit minors to their own cause.
Ukraine says Russian troops are being trained on the use of Iranian drones at the Shayrat airfield in Syria’s western province of Homs. At the same time, Syria has extended permission for the United Nations to deliver aid to opposition-held areas in the northwest of the country via two Turkish border crossings for another three months.
The drone strike apparently launched by Iran-backed militants that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan was the latest in a flurry of attacks and reprisals across the Middle East that are linked to the war in Gaza and threaten to ignite a wider conflict.