Lloyd Austin: I do not expect Iran-backed groups to increase attacks on American forces in the region

Despite rising tensions in the Middle East, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says he does not expect Iran-backed militias to increase their attacks on American forces in Iraq and Syria as they have in the past. According to Reuters, Austin stated on Wednesday while leaving the Philippines in response to reporters' questions, "To be clear, I still don’t think we’re going back to where we were several months ago." Early Wednesday, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, who was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Masoud Pezeshkian, was targeted and killed; an attack that the Islamic Republic attributes to Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday in an interview with "Channel News Asia" in Singapore, "This is something we were not aware of and had no involvement in. Speculating on this is very difficult." Between October 7 of last year and February of this year, U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan were targeted over 160 times by drone and rocket attacks, which led the United States to conduct several retaliatory strikes. On Tuesday, following an Israeli airstrike in Beirut targeting Hezbollah officials, the U.S. conducted an air operation in Iraq, targeting positions of groups affiliated with the Islamic Republic. Live coverage of a press conference by Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, noted that the White House stated the U.S. has "no specific intelligence" regarding the killing of the Hamas political leader in Tehran. Lindsey Graham stated that Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic are one and the same, and Israel has the right to target the masterminds of terrorism anywhere and anytime. Norman Roll commented that the Revolutionary Guards, who were responsible for protecting Ismail Haniyeh, were humiliated.