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WASHINGTON Iran has used the continuing chaos in Iraq to build up a hidden arsenal of short-range ballistic missiles in Iraq, part of a widening effort to try to intimidate the Middle East and assert its power, according to American intelligence and military officials.

The buildup comes as the United States has rebuilt its military presence in the Middle East to counter emerging threats to American interests, including attacks on oil tankers and facilities that intelligence officials have blamed on Iran. Since May, the Trump administration has sent roughly 14,000 additional troops to the region, primarily to staff Navy ships and missile defense systems.

But new intelligence about Irans stockpiling of missiles in Iraq is the latest sign that the Trump administrations efforts to deter Tehran by increasing the American military presence in the Middle East has largely failed.

The missiles pose a threat to American allies and partners in the region, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, and could endanger American troops, the intelligence officials said.

Both Iran and Iraq have been gripped in recent weeks by sometimes violent public protests. In Iraq, some are protesting against Iranian influence.

Iraqis do not want to be led around on a leash by the Iranians, Representative Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview. But, unfortunately, due to the chaos and confusion in the Iraqi central government, Iran is paradoxically the best poised to take advantage of the grass-roots unrest.

Iranian officials did not return a request for comment.

Tehran is engaged in a shadow war, striking at countries in the Middle East but thinly disguising the origin of those attacks to reduce the chance of provoking a response or escalating the fight, military and intelligence officials said.

An arsenal of missiles outside its borders gives advantages to the Iranian government, military and paramilitary in any standoff with the United States and its regional allies. If the United States or Israel were to bomb Iran, its military could use missiles hidden in Iraq to strike back against Israel or a gulf country. The mere existence of those weapons could also help deter attacks.

Intelligence officials would not discuss the precise model of ballistic missile Iran has sneaked into Iraq. But short-range missiles have a range of just over 600 miles, meaning that one fired from the outskirts of Baghdad could strike Jerusalem.

American intelligence officials first warned about new Iranian missiles in Iraq last year, and Israel launched an airstrike aimed at destroying the hidden Iranian weaponry. But since then, American officials have said the threat is growing, with new ballistic missiles being secretly moved in.

Officials said Iran was using Iraqi Shiite militias, many of which it has long supplied and controlled, to move and hide the missiles. The Iranian-backed militias have effectively taken control of a number roads, bridges and transportation infrastructure in Iraq, easing Tehrans ability to sneak the missiles into the country, officials said.

People are not paying enough attention to the fact that ballistic missiles in the last year have been placed in Iraq by Iran with the ability to project violence on the region, said Ms. Slotkin, an expert on Shiite militias who recently visited Baghdad to meet with Iraqi and American officials.

Ms. Slotkin pressed Iraqi leaders on the threat from Iran, telling them that if Iran launched a missile from Iraqi territory, it could threaten the American training effort in Iraq and other support from the United States.

The United States was concerned about potential Iranian aggression in the near future, John C. Rood, an under secretary of defense, told reporters on Wednesday, but he provided no details about what prompted officials concerns. CNN reported on Tuesday about American intelligence officials warning about new threats by Iran against American forces in the Middle East.

Tensions in the Persian Gulf have risen since attacks on oil tankers this spring, including off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, as well as a major drone and missile strike on Saudi oil fields in September. The Trump administration and European allies have blamed Iran, which has denied responsibility for the attacks.

Mr. Trump opted against a military strike in response to those attacks, but has authorized the United States Cyber Command to strike targets in Iran, although military and intelligence officials have said such electronic attacks are unlikely to deter Tehran.

Last year, Reuters reported that Iran had moved ballistic missiles into Iraq. In a public report released last month, the Defense Intelligence Agency reported that Irans ballistic missiles were a primary component of its strategic deterrent.

Tehran has been building up its arsenal to better dissuade the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia from attacking.

While decades of international sanctions have weakened the Iranian military, the agencys report said Iran had invested in its domestic infrastructure, allowing it to continue to develop capable cruise and ballistic missiles.

In the strike in September, Iran used sophisticated cruise missiles to attack Saudi oil facilities and disguise, at least for a time, where the strike originated. Those missiles were fired from Iran, but flew around the northern Persian Gulf before striking their targets.

Positioning missiles in Iraq as well as in Iran would further allow the Iranian government to create initial doubts about an attacks origins. Obscuring responsibility, if only for a short time, is a key part of Irans hybrid war strategy, in which it tries to keep its adversaries off balance and pressure them without prompting a larger crisis or even war.

Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of the militarys Central Command, has said that he does not think that the American defensive buildup has deterred Tehran. Last month, he said that he expected Iran to try to mount additional attacks in the region.

General McKenzie added in a later interview, Its the trajectory and the direction that theyre on.

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Iran Is Secretly Moving Missiles Into Iraq, U.S. Officials Say - The New York Times

The U.S. military seized a "cache of weapons and advanced missile components" believed to be of Iranian origin in the northern Arabian Sea, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The small vessel carrying the weapons, referred to as a dhow, was believed to be headed to Yemen, a U.S. official told ABC News, where the missile parts would likely support Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The dhow carried dissembled part for anti-ship cruise missiles, land attack cruise missiles, air defense missiles and anti-tank missiles, the official said.

"On November 25th, a U.S. warship conducted a flag verification boarding in the Arabian sea in accordance with international law of what was subsequently determined to be a stateless vessel, and discovered a cache of weapons and advanced missile components," said Pentagon spokesperson Cmdr. Sean Robertson in a statement. "An initial investigation indicates that these advanced missile components are of Iranian origin. A more thorough investigation is underway."

The USS Forrest Sherman, a Navy destroyer, interdicted the dhow early last week in the northern Arabian Sea, and a U.S. Coast Guard boarding party seized the guided-missile parts, a second U.S. official said.

The dhow's crew was held aboard the U.S. destroyer while the missile components were transferred aboard the ship, that official said. The crew has already been released and given to Yemeni authorities, the first official said, but it's unclear where the dhow and crew were transferred.

The Associated Press, which was first to report the seizure, said it was the first time that such sophisticated components have been taken en route to the war in Yemen.

On Wednesday morning, a top Pentagon official said that the U.S. continues to see "indications" that Iranian aggression could occur. That warning came one day after CNN reported that "fresh intelligence" showed there is a "potential Iranian threat against U.S. forces and interests in the Middle East," as evidenced by the movement of Iranian forces and weapons in the region.

"We also continue to see indications, and for obvious reasons I won't go into the details, that potential Iranian aggression could occur," Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood told a small group of reporters.

Rood said that in the aftermath of Iranian attacks over the summer -- attacks which targeted commercial ships, a Saudi oil facility and a U.S. drone -- the U.S. moved about 14,000 additional U.S. troops into the Middle East and "stepped up messaging" to Iran in order to discourage further attacks.

"Watch this space," he said. "I think we're going to be dynamic in our deployments, in our response and how we message. In private, you should know we've sent very clear and blunt signals to the Iranian government about the potential consequences of aggression."

The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group was one of the U.S. assets rushed to the Middle East in May to deter what at the time appeared to be imminent threats to U.S. interests and forces in the region from Iran.

The carrier transited the Strait of Hormuz out of the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, after spending almost two weeks there. While in the Persian Gulf, the Lincoln made a port call in Bahrain, the first port visit during its Middle East deployment that is expected to come to an end soon with the expected arrival of the USS Harry S. Truman.

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US seizes Iranian weapons and missile parts headed to Yemen in northern Arabian Sea - ABC News

The killers of the year 1978 were the representatives of a nonreligious regime and the agents and shooters of November 2019 are the representatives of a religious government, he said. Then the commander in chief was the shah and today, here, the supreme leader with absolute authority.

The authorities have declined to specify casualties and arrests and have denounced unofficial figures on the national death toll as speculative. But the nations interior minister, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, has cited widespread unrest around the country.

On state media, he said that protests had erupted in 29 out of 31 provinces and 50 military bases had been attacked, which if true suggested a level of coordination absent in the earlier protests. Irans official media have reported that several members of the security forces were killed and injured during the clashes.

The property damage also included 731 banks, 140 public spaces, nine religious centers, 70 gasoline stations, 307 vehicles, 183 police cars, 1,076 motorcycles and 34 ambulances, the interior minister said.

The worst violence documented so far happened in the city of Mahshahr and its suburbs, with a population of 120,000 people in Irans southwest Khuzestan Province a region with an ethnic Arab majority that has a long history of unrest and opposition to the central government. Mahshahr is adjacent to the nations largest industrial petrochemical complex and serves as a gateway to Bandar Imam, a major port.

The New York Times interviewed six residents of the city, including a protest leader who had witnessed the violence; a reporter based in the city who works for Iranian media, and had investigated the violence but was banned from reporting it; and a nurse at the hospital where casualties were treated.

They each provided similar accounts of how the Revolutionary Guards deployed a large force to Mahshahr on Monday, Nov. 18, to crush the protests. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by the Guards.

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With Brutal Crackdown, Iran Is Convulsed by Worst Unrest in 40 Years - The New York Times

Once again Iranians have flooded their countrys streets to participate in widespread protests sparked by gasoline price hikes, only to be met by a brutal crackdown. But clearly the unrest was about more than the price of gas, reflecting deeper frustration and anger over the general economic malaise caused by a corrupt, repressive government and punishing U.S. sanctions.

During the protests, American officials, including Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, took to Twitter to express solidarity with the Iranian protesters, even tweeting in Persian and encouraging the reporting of human rights abuses by government officials engaging in violent crackdowns.

Yet, given current U.S. policies, such expressions of sympathy for the Iranian people may be difficult to take seriously. Beyond rhetorical support, there are a number of concrete steps the United States could take if concern for the Iranian people is a genuine priority, as it should be.

The Trump administration could lift its reinstatement of secondary sanctions against Iran that were imposed following its unilateral withdrawal in 2018 from the Iran nuclear agreement. While the intention of the sanctions may have been to bring Iran back to the negotiating table for a better deal, a new agreement has yet to result.

Moreover, the administrations maximum pressure campaign of unprecedented economic sanctions against Iran has hurt the Iranian people more than the Iranian leadership.

Iranian leaders have ratcheted up aggressive regional policies in response to U.S. pressure that has severely curtailed Iranian oil exports including the brazen attack against state oil company Saudi Aramco facilities in September and the shooting down of a U.S. military drone in the Strait of Hormuz in June.

Meanwhile, the pressure is contributing to soaring inflation and unemployment in Iran. The devaluing of the Iranian currency is eroding the savings of average Iranians and leading to prohibitively high living costs. The sanctions are also having serious humanitarian consequences. Human rights reports suggest that, despite exemptions for humanitarian imports, the banking restrictions caused by U.S. sanctions are preventing Iran from financing such imports, leading to shortages of drugs to treat rare diseases and multiple forms of cancer.

The U.S. could change course and allow the rest of the world to conduct commercial and financial transactions with Iran. Easing up on secondary sanctions against close American allies in Europe and Asia could also create a more supportive international environment for stepping up pressure should Iran further renege on its nuclear commitments, particularly since Iran would have no justification for doing so if it continued to receive the economic benefits promised in the original agreement.

While some in the Trump administration may still be hoping that enough economic pressure will lead to the collapse of the regime, trying a different approach may improve the prospects for a new negotiation process with Iran, which Trump has at times appeared to support.

The administration also could lift the travel ban on Iranians who wish to come to the United States. The ban has proved to be one of the most destructive policies harming average Iranians, many of whom have been unable to see family members or seek medical care in the United States because of the restrictions. The ban has also reduced the ability of Iranian students to seek an education in the U.S., exactly the type of next-generation Iranians who could help foster a more positive U.S.-Iranian relationship in the future. While the travel ban is supposed to exempt Iranians seeking student and nonimmigrant visas, many such applicants have been blocked from entering the country.

In addition, the travel ban and related policies have begun to chip away at traditionally positive views of the United States, with recent polling showing that 86% of Iranians now view the U.S. unfavorably. If helping the Iranian people is a key objective, lifting the travel ban would be one of the most important steps this administration could take for both humanitarian and interest-based reasons.

Finally, in an attempt to close off Iranians from communications inside and outside the country, the Iranian government shut down the internet for five days after public protest began in mid-November, a drastic move meant to quell the protesters ability to organize against the government. And yet the Iranian leadership maintained access to the internet during the shutdown. The United States imposed property-based sanctions on the Iranian information minister because of the shutdown, but in the absence of broader U.S. support for Iranians, the step is likely to be seen as a mere gesture that will not fundamentally alter Iranians access to the outside world.

Efforts by the State Department to encourage unhindered Iranian access to the internet, including supporting efforts of ordinary Iranian citizens to circumvent these restrictions on access to information, is a move in the right direction, particularly if pursued in tandem with other measures to relieve pressure on the Iranian people.

Iranians are protesting for better governance that would make the welfare of the Iranian people a priority over the governments costly regional meddling and the enrichment of entrenched leaders. For this reason, Iranians deserve American support.

Instead, current U.S. policies are hurting the cause the Iranian people are fighting for while failing to achieve any strategic objectives. If the U.S. pursued policies aimed at creating a better future for the Iranian people, they may have the added benefit of producing less dangerous Iranian government policies than those we have seen under the mantra of maximum pressure.

Dalia Dassa Kaye is a senior political scientist and director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at Rand Corp.

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Opinion: With chaos in the streets of Iran, here's how the U.S. could help the Iranian people - Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday there were indications that Iran could potentially carry out aggressive actions in the future, amid simmering tensions between Tehran and Washington.

Tensions in the Gulf have risen since attacks on oil tankers during the summer, including off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, and a major assault on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia. The United States has blamed Iran, which has denied being behind the attacks on global energy infrastructure.

We also continue to see indications, and for obvious reasons I wont go into the details, that potential Iranian aggression could occur, John Rood, the Pentagons No. 3 official, told reporters.

Rood did not provide details about what information he was basing that on or any timeline.

Weve sent very clear and blunt signals to the Iranian government about the potential consequences of aggression, Rood said.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there was intelligence over the past month indicating that Iran was moving forces and weapons in the region.

It was not clear what specifically Iran was looking to do with the movements, they added.

One of the officials said that part of the concern was Iranian activity inside Iraq, which is experiencing anti-government protests.

Last year, Reuters reported that Iran had given ballistic missiles to Shiite proxies in Iraq and was developing the capacity to build more there to deter attacks on its interests in the Middle East and to give it the means to hit regional foes.

The United States has deployed thousands of additional military forces in the Middle East, including bombers and air defense personnel, to act as a deterrent against what Washington says is provocative Iranian behavior.

The U.S. officials said there were ongoing discussions about adding more U.S. troops in the region but that no decision had been made and the situation was fluid. They said the military regularly talked about forces around the world, including in the Middle East.

Iran has been facing weeks of sometimes violent protests against gasoline price hikes.

The unrest, which began on Nov. 15 after the government abruptly raised fuel prices by as much as 300 percent, spread to more than 100 cities and towns and turned political as young and working-class protesters demanded clerical leaders step down.

Tehrans clerical rulers have blamed thugs linked to its opponents in exile and the countrys main foreign foes - the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia - for the unrest.

Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney

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Pentagon official says there are indications Iranian 'aggression' could occur - Reuters