Iran avoids full-blown war with US but is caught in new crisis

The Iranian leadership, rattled by the death of a top general in an US drone attack, hit at US forces in Iraq with missile strikes designed to save face at home but not sparking a full-blown war that would threaten the very existence of the Islamic Republic.

Analysts said the danger of a new escalation remained as commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seemed to be clamouring for more revenge attacks but Tehran was on the defensive after being forced to admit that Iran’s air defence shot down a Ukrainian airliner near Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 people on board. Iran rejected the accusations and said they were “psychological warfare.”

Read more in the Arab Weekly.