US warns of imminent attack on Israeli assets by Iran or proxies
WASHINGTON—U.S. intelligence reports show that an attack on Israeli assets by Iran or its proxies could be imminent, U.S. officials said Wednesday, as the top American military commander for the Middle East headed to Israel to coordinate a response.
Iran has publicly threatened to retaliate for a strike in Syria on an Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus last week, presumed to be the work of Israel, that killed top Iranian military officials, including a senior member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force. Syria and Iran accused Israel of carrying out the attack, which killed Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who managed Iranian paramilitary operations in Syria and Lebanon, according to Iranian state media and U.S.
officials. Zahedi was the highest-ranking Iranian military official to be killed since the January 2020 U.S. assassination of Gen.
Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. The U.S. has said it wasn’t involved in the strike in Syria and received no previous warning from Israel that it planned to conduct the attack.
It is unclear whether Iran is planning to conduct a direct strike on Israeli targets or use one of its Middle East proxies. In the past, Tehran has appeared eager to avoid a direct confrontation with Israel or the U.S. and worked via proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Iran-backed groups in Iraq.
But U.S. defense officials warned that Iran could use its own military forces this time to demonstrate a forceful response to Zahedi’s death. President Biden said on Wednesday that Iran is “threatening to launch a significant attack on Israel." “As I told (Israeli) Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is
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