Iran-backed Shiite armed groups in Iraq have ramped up rocket and missile attacks on Israel in recent weeks, raising concerns in Washington and among some Iranian allies of potential Israeli retaliation and regional escalation should they draw blood.
Though Western officials and Israeli experts do not see the attacks, often from hundreds of miles (kilometers) away, as posing the same level of threat to Israel as point-blank strikes by Hamas and Hezbollah, they have increased in number and sophistication.
At least two have hit their targets, and many have had to be shot down by U.S. and Israeli defenses, according to U.S officials and public statements from the Israeli military.
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