The US Intel community thinks probably NOT….
And?
THAT IS SCARY……
While the media connects Middle East attacks across the rregion TO Iran?
Recent actions by Iran casts doubts on that ….
Intelligence officials have calculated that Tehran does not have full control over its proxy groups in the Middle East, including those responsible for attacking and killing U.S. troops in recent weeks, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The Quds Force — an elite branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps — is responsible for sending weapons and military advisers as well as intelligence to support militias in Iraq and Syria as well as the Houthis in Yemen. The groups have varying ambitions and agendas, which sometimes overlap, but Tehran does not appear to have complete authority over their operational decision-making, the officials said….
…
Washington does not have a regular, direct line of communication with Tehran and with the escalating violence in the region, the Biden administration has sought to understand the extent to which the regime has been involved in directing attacks on U.S. troops.
While Iran is supporting the proxy groups financially and with military equipment, intelligence officials do not believe it is commanding the attacks. Its lack of control over the Houthis and the militias in Iraq and Syria has muddied the deliberations in Washington about how to respond to repeated attacks on U.S. interests in the region, including the attack in Jordan Jan. 28 that killed three American troops.
“This is perhaps the most complicated period that I have seen in this region,” one of the U.S. officials said….