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Strikes near Iraqi border mark widening regional battle against Iran

Strikes widely attributed to Israel have hit an Iranian convoy near the Iraqi border after it crossed out of the country.

BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images
Turkey-backed Syrian fighters stand guard in a position in al-Kraydiyeh area, on the frontline with Kurdish-held areas near Syria's northern city of Manbij, close to the border with Turkey, on Dec. 2, 2022. — BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images

BAGHDAD — Iraq marks the geographical center of a larger fight that may be heating up again between Iran and its regional proxies on the one hand and the United States and Israel on the other.

There have been several recent attacks that remain unclaimed but that most observers attribute to Israel, both in Iran and near Iraq’s western border with Syria in territory under the de facto control of Iran-linked armed factions.

The attacks on the Syrian side of the border on Sunday night and Monday morning are believed to have targeted either an aid convoy from Iran to Lebanon or vehicles transporting weapons for Iran-linked armed factions. Some reports claim an officer from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was among those killed in the morning attack.

Armed factions consisting largely of Iraqi nationals but linked to Iran have for years crossed the border between Iraq and Syria largely at will, as fighters from the groups have told Al-Monitor in previous interviews.

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