Iran's role with proxy militia groups explained by Middle East expert

OAKLAND, Calif. - The U.S. retaliation came swiftly, with a thirty-minute attack Friday targeting four sites in Syria and three sites in Iraq which U.S. officials say included command and intelligence centers, drones, rockets, and ammunition storage sites used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard or IRGC and its proxy militia groups.

President Biden said the strikes were in retaliation for the deadly Jan. 28 drone attack that killed three American troops and injured more than 40 others at the U.S. Tower 22 military base in Jordan.

"Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing," President Biden said in a statement Friday. "If you harm an American, we will respond."

"Iran calls these groups an Axis of Resistance," said Maziar Behrooz, an Iranian-American associate professor of Middle East history at San Francisco State University. He says Americans need to understand Iran's role with proxy groups in the region.

"The Iranian government has been taken over by the ultra-hardline faction," Behrooz said. "I think most observers agree that Iran does not have operational control over these groups.

"This hardline faction views the conflict in the Middle East as a protracted conflict, a low-intensity protracted conflict. They don't have to get involved, and they don't have to pay the price. The proxies pay the price," Behrooz said.

U.S. Central Command says long-range B-1 bombers left the United States Friday, flying some 6,000 miles to help with the retaliatory airstrikes which they say hit 85 targets.

"We know that there are, there are militants that use these locations, IRGC as well as, Iranian allied militia group personnel who use these locations," said Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the Joint Staff Operations Director.

"The goal here is to get these attacks to stop. We are not looking for a war with Iran," said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby at an evening news conference Friday. "Those attacks in Jordan were carried out by the umbrella group, Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a group that is supported by Kataib Hezbollah. Kataib Hezbollah is one of the participants. And that was the intelligence community’s best assessment."

Behrooz says the U.S. is facing a difficult path forward, on the one hand sending a message to the proxy groups to stop attacking American forces, but on the other hand trying to avoid a war with Iran and preserving the possibility of diplomatic talks as the West tries to contain Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities.  

"Being very careful not to hit Iran itself, suggests to me that they are careful to plan for the future agreements," Behrooz said.

Behrooz also says the U.S. is becoming increasingly isolated in the Middle East due to its response to the Palestinian civilian deaths in the Gaza war.

"Countries like Iran will take advantage of it. They take advantage of anger. They'll take and people willing to fight," Behrooz said, saying that could make the U.S. a continued target by proxy groups.