Good morning. It is Saturday, February 3rd. I'm Ali Valshi. The Israel-Gaza war continues its steady creep

outward, threatening to explode into a widespread regional conflict or worse at any moment. And now

the United States has up the ante conducting what the Biden

administration says is the first in a series of strategic retaliatory strikes against Iranian-backed

proxy forces operating in Iraq and Syria and their Iranian handlers operating alongside them.

These groups are among those responsible for more than 160

attacks on U.S. troops in the region since the October 7th attack on Israel. That includes

last Sunday's deadly attack on Tower 22. It's a U.S. base in the extreme northeast corner of

Jordan right near the border with Iraq and Syria.

More than 40 U.S. service members were wounded and three U.S. soldiers died in that attack.

24-year-old specialist Kennedy Sanders, who was posthumously promoted to sergeant,

46-year-old Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, and 23-year-old Brianna Anderson, Moffin, who was also posthumously

promoted to sergeant. Yesterday, President Biden attended the dignified transfers of their bodies

at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and a short time later, the U.S. struck back in utilizing

aircraft, including B-1 bombers, which took off from the continental

United States and flew roughly 7,100 miles to strike their targets.

The strikes used more than 125 precision munitions, hitting more than 85 targets and

seven facilities, four in Syria and three in Iraq. NBC News has been

able to confirm the location of five of the strikes. You can see them here. U.S. officials say

those facilities, including command and control headquarters, intelligence centers, rocket

missile drones, and ammunition depotsots and supply chain facilities,

were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,

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