ATLANTA — New details continue to emerge Tuesday on rising tensions in the Middle East.
The U.S. Central Command reports the American military shot down drones and missiles in the southern Red Sea that were fired by a group of rebels supported by Iran.
In another development, the United States struck back in Iraq Monday against militants supported by Iran. Officials there said those U.S. strikes killed an Iraqi serviceman and injured 18 other people.
Charred vehicles and debris lined the streets of Al Hilla, which is about 60 miles south of Baghdad. Mourners carried the coffin of a Hezbollah fighter, reportedly killed during retaliatory airstrikes by the U.S.
These incidents turn up the heat even more in a region already devastated by a conflict between Israel and Hamas.
There is concern the ongoing conflict in the Middle East will branch out beyond Israel and neighboring countries. Doug Teper worked as a governance specialist for the U.S. State Department and worries it could potentially affect much of the world.
“It has a number of Iranian militias made up in the government, and they are constantly messing with the United States of America," Tepper said.
Teper worked for the U.S. Department of State in Iraq from 2008 to 2011. He said recent attacks in Iraq, blamed on groups aligned with Iran, have potential implications for the Israel-Hamas War.
“We are doing our best not to expand the war that's going on," Tepper said. "We don't want to give Iran any kind of reason to go into Israel, so we have measured responses to the Iranian attacks.”
Teper believes as attacks across the region continue, more countries will notice and could get involved, including Turkey, Yemen, and even Russia.
“Russians have some, as we say, skin in the game. They're trying anything they can do to distract the United States from arming Ukraine helps them in their efforts to take over Ukrainian territory," Tepper said.
Teper compares what's going on in the Middle East to the game of Risk, where everybody is building alliances and trying to keep enemies at bay.
“It’s everything we can do to make sure it doesn't break out into some kind of widespread war around the world," Tepper said.
The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 troops in Iraq on a mission to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.