Wary of Another War, the U.S. Tries to Stay on the Defensive in the Middle East

In the Middle East, the United States is positioning itself defensively in response to the risk of wider regional escalation due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, but major Iranian or proxy attacks against Israel or U.S. forces may still pull Washington into a large-scale conflict. On Oct. 26, U.S. warplanes struck two Iran-linked sites near the Syrian city of Bukamal on the Iraqi border, where the Pentagon said it had struck ammunition and storage areas associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) -- marking the first U.S. military operation against Iranian-linked targets since the Hamas-Israel war broke out on Oct. 7. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the strikes were in response to numerous attacks on U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq in recent weeks amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The attacks came after the Pentagon said it was deploying around 900 new troops to the region,...