Coronavirus Can’t Quarantine The Proxy War Between U.S. and Iran

A pandemic is spreading around the world, challenging global health systems and national preparedness. About the only thing the novel coronavirus is not disrupting is conflict between the U.S. and Iran, as the top U.S. general in the Middle East signaled Friday that the airstrikes on Iranian proxy militias in Iraq are likely to not be the last.

On Thursday night, U.S. warplanes struck what Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie described as five “advanced conventional” weapons storage sites in Iraq kept by the Shia militia Kataib Hezbollah. Kataib Hezbollah’s Iraqi leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, was killed by the same U.S. drone strike in Iraq that killed Iranian external security chief Qassem Soleimani. McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, for the first time called the group responsible for this week’s rocket attack on Iraq’s Camp Taji that killed two U.S. service members, Army Spc. Juan Miguel Mendez Covarrubias and Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts.

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