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

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press

The drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan and was apparently launched by Iran-backed militants was the latest in a flurry of attacks and reprisals across the Middle East. The strikes are linked to the war in Gaza and threaten to ignite a wider conflict. As Israel, with crucial American support, wages an all-out war against Hamas triggered by the militant group’s Oct. 7 rampage, the two allies face simultaneous attacks from a strengthening alliance of other armed militant groups backed by Iran and sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. There has been low-intensity fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border, attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, the targeting of U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq, and the killing of senior militants in airstrikes.