Iran launched a retaliatory attack against Israel on Saturday that risks sparking a regional conflict involving U.S. military forces. The missile and drone attack marked the first time that Iran has launched a direct military attack on the Jewish state. 

Several hours after the Iranian strikes began, U.S. officials said that American forces in the region had shot down several Iranian drones and were also trying to shoot down Iranian missiles bound for Israel.

“US forces in the region continue to shoot down Iranian-launched drones targeting Israel,” a U.S. official said. “Our forces remain postured to provide additional defensive support and to protect US forces operating in the region.”

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Iranian state television said that “in response to crimes by the Zionist Regime,” Iran had launched “missiles and drones on specific locations in the occupied lands.”

The attack came weeks after an Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Syria’s capital, Damascus, killed two generals and five officers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. Israel did not take responsibility for that strike, but Tehran vowed revenge.

White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement that president Joe Biden was being updated about the situation by his national security team. Additionally, the statement said Biden’s team is in “constant contact” with Israeli officials, partners and allies.

U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, as well as American warships in the region, are part of the effort to thwart the Iranian attack, U.S. officials said. They include the USS Carney, a destroyer that has been involved in knocking out missiles and drones in the Red Sea fired by Iranian-backed Houthi forces from Yemen.

The U.S. has signaled its support for Israel and worked to persuade Iran to stop short of a significant escalation that could spiral into a full-blown war between Iran and Israel.

Through decades of tensions with Israel, Iran has previously avoided a direct conflict with the Jewish state, instead opting to damage its adversary through armed proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and elsewhere. In back-channel communications with the U.S. over the past two weeks, Iran indicated it would retaliate against Israel but wanted to avoid a massive escalation that would lead to all-out war, U.S. officials told NBC News.

The question now is whether Iran’s attack will be interpreted in the way Tehran has planned, or trigger an unintended reaction from Israel that could escalate into an uncontrollable cycle of violence, analysts said.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at a prayer ceremony celebrating the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Wednesday that Israel “must be punished, and it will be punished.” Since the building destroyed was a consular building, he said, it amounted to an attack on Iranian soil.

Growing tensions

Tensions in the region have been at boiling point since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 terror attack and mass hostage taking and Israel’s subsequent full-scale assault on the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 33,000 and pushed the population to the brink of starvation. While increasingly critical of the way Israel is pursuing the war in Gaza, Biden has pledged that America’s “commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad.” 

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, spoke to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday and said that “a direct Iranian attack will require an appropriate Israeli response against Iran.”

Two U.S. officials told NBC News last week that the administration was considering options for how to respond to various possible retaliatory moves by Iran.

The blast at the consular building killed two of Iran’s top commanders, including Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior member of the Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite foreign espionage group.

His death marked the killing of the most senior Iranian official since Gen. Qassem Soleimani was targeted by an American airstrike in 2020.

Zahedi was a key figure in coordinating the so-called Axis of Resistance — the anti-Israel, anti-Western network of Iran-backed groups that operate with militants from across the Arab world. Tehran currently backs Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — all of which in recent months have either attacked Israel directly or conducted attacks citing resistance to Israel.

Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese political party and militia, has exchanged fire with Israel across the southern Lebanon border since then in support of Hamas. More than 300 have been killed in Lebanon, according to the United Nations, including at least 54 confirmed civilians.

The Houthis, a Yemen-based rebel militia, have been firing on ships in the Red Sea for months, threatening a key route for global trade. The U.S. and U.K. have organized a military coalition against the Houthis, firing on the militia’s sites in Yemen in January.

Another Iran-associated militant group, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, struck a U.S. base in Jordan in January. Three U.S. troops were killed and 30 others were injured in the attack. The group has also claimed to have launched numerous attacks on Israeli sites since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Iran’s military reach

The IRGC, Iran’s immensely powerful military and political organization, has helped Tehran wage a shadow war with Israel across the Middle East for years while the two countries avoided direct conflict.

Israel is widely believed to be behind a long list of drone attacks and explosions that have hit Iranian military and nuclear targets, particularly since the collapse of talks to revive Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has faced mounting domestic and global criticism over Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza, has long viewed the Islamic Republic as Israel’s most dangerous adversary. 

Israel has struggled to contain and undermine Iran’s military reach in Syria, targeting arms deliveries bound for Tehran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. 

Since Iran came to the aid of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria more than a decade ago, sending thousands of Shiite foreign fighters to Syria as well as Revolutionary Guard troops to help Damascus wage war against Syrian rebels, Israel has feared that Iran’s military presence across the border posed a growing threat. 

After the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, Israel adopted a more aggressive stance, apparently concluding its previous tactics had failed to deter Iran and its partners in Gaza. Instead of attacking arms shipments or military sites in Syria, Israel went after senior figures overseeing Iran’s regional proxy network. In December, Israel is believed to have killed Sayyed Razi Mousavi, a top Iranian general, in Damascus. 

Israel, which has nuclear weapons, a state-the-art air force and advanced air defenses, enjoys a military advantage over Iran. But Tehran has built up a formidable ballistic missile and drone arsenal, along with its proxies that can strike at Israeli or U.S. targets across the region.