From Houthis to Hezbollah, a look at the Iran-allied groups rallying to arms around Middle East

Missiles, rockets and drones struck targets around the Middle East this week as the United States, Israel and others clashed with Iran-allied militant groups — with attacks hitting in vital Red Sea shipping lanes, along Israeli-Lebanon borders emptied by fleeing residents and around the region’s crowded capitals and U.S. military installations.

Together, Israel and its U.S. allies were facing two realities they knew all too well going into the war in Gaza: The Gaza-based Hamas militant group is far from alone as it battles for its survival. And by launching an all-out campaign to eliminate Hamas as a fighting force, Israeli and American leaders also are confronting simultaneous attacks from a strengthening defensive alliance of other armed militant groups linked with Hamas and Iran.

This week, the risk of being drawn into a wider, more chaotic and deadlier conflict with an array of regional enemies loomed large. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior Biden administration envoys were traveling to Middle East capitals on Friday to calm tensions and deter further attacks.

Here’s a breakdown of the armed groups facing the United States and Israel in the Middle East, a look at what unites some of them, and what’s different about each.

THE SITUATION

The United States is scrambling to quell attacks by a range of armed groups that are allied to Iran and to each other. They are:

— Hamas in Gaza;

— powerful Hezbollah, the dominant force in Lebanon;

— smaller militias in Iraq and Syria;

— Houthis in the poor Arabian peninsula country of Yemen, who are sometimes seen as more of the loose cannons of the alliance.

All the groups have escalated attacks on U.S., Israeli or global targets within their reach since Israel launched its war in Gaza on Oct. 7, after Hamas’s deadly cross-border raids. The aim of Iran and of the armed groups at large is to aid Hamas with attacks that distract the focus of Israel and the United States, and that make the military, economic and political costs of continuing the war against Hamas too great for Israel and the United States.

The groups don’t necessarily want further additional escalation themselves, given their odds in any all-out confrontation with two of the world’s strongest militaries, experts say. But under the leadership of the late Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the U.S. in 2020, the far-flung array of Iranian-allied militias knitted themselves into a more cohesive network.

They also grew into a common understanding, said Randa Slim, a regional analyst with the Washington-based Middle East Institute: When the survival of any one was threatened, all would rally.

THE PLAYERS:

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