Israel launched a deadly attack on Iranian positions in Syria, responding to an earlier rocket attack by Iran's forces on the Golan Heights, an Israeli-occupied area along the Syrian border. Iran's attack itself followed several strikes by Israel on its bases in Syria.
The earlier Israeli strikes came both before and after President Donald Trump announced he is withdrawing the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Middle East-watchers warn that Trump's decision emboldens Israel and Saudi Arabia to take a more aggressive stance against Iranian forces and proxies in the region. They say it also marginalizes Iran's political moderates like President Hassan Rouhani and emboldens the nation's hardline conservatives and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, an elite military organization loyal to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
War, what is it good for?