‘The situation could escalate’: US braces for possible Iranian retaliation after Israeli strike

Lara Seligman
·2 min read
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The U.S. is bracing for a possible major Iranian attack on Israel or its forces in retaliation for an airstrike that killed several senior Iranian commanders this week, according to three U.S. officials and one Israeli official.

U.S. officials believe some kind of significant military action against Israeli forces could occur in the coming days, according to the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. The Pentagon does not believe U.S. forces will be targeted, and is not repositioning its assets at this time, one of the officials said.

Still, the fear is that any Iranian retaliation on Israeli forces could escalate and spark a broader conflict, said the official.

“We’re in that window where we think they could respond at any time,” the official said. “The situation could escalate, then we get into what we are trying to avoid, which is a wider regional war.”

Top Iranian officials have vowed to respond after Israel’s airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria, this week, which killed at least seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Among those killed was the top commander in Syria, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, and his deputy, Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.

Israel has not taken responsibility for the strike, but Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh this week said the Defense Department had assessed that Israel was behind the attack.

In the immediate aftermath, the Biden administration quickly conveyed to Iran that it had nothing to do with the attack, one of the U.S. officials said.

U.S. troops are already on high alert in the region for attacks by Iran-backed forces. Since Israel invaded Gaza in October, Tehran-linked militants have attacked U.S. troops in Syria, Iraq and Jordan at least 170 times, including a drone strike that killed three U.S. soldiers and prompted President Joe Biden to order retaliatory airstrikes.

Those strikes seemed to have the intended effect, as U.S. forces have not been targeted in Iraq and Syria since Feb. 4.

A DOD spokesperson declined to comment.

Alexander ward contributed to this report.