WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to the Middle East on Friday in a high-stakes trip aimed at preventing Israel’s monthslong battle against Hamas from sliding into a broader regional war that could draw in the United States.
Blinken’s visit to the region — his fourth since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostage — comes days after a suspected Israeli strike killed a top Hamas official in Beirut and twin explosions claimed by the Islamic State killed nearly 100 people in central Iran.
The deadly war in the Gaza Strip has provoked Iran's network of proxies, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, to carry out fresh attacks in solidarity with the Palestinian militants. The assassination on Tuesday of Hamas deputy political leader Saleh al-Arouri has fueled new concerns that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah could open a second front in the war.
Further ratcheting up tensions, a US airstrike in Baghdad Thursday killed a leader of Harakat al-Nujaba, an Iran-linked Shiite militia blamed for attacks on US forces in Iraq. The US military has been the target of around 120 militia attacks in Syria and Iraq since mid-October, the Pentagon says.
