US, Iran step back from the brink; region still on edge

The U.S. and Iran stepped back from the brink of possible war on Jan. 8 as President Donald Trump signaled he would not retaliate militarily for Iran's missile strikes on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops. No one was harmed in the strikes, but U.S. forces in the region remained on high alert.

Speaking from the White House, Trump seemed intent on de-escalating the crisis, which spiraled after he authorized the targeted killing last week of Iran's top general, Qassem Soleimani.

Iran responded overnight with its most direct assault on America since the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, firing more than a dozen missiles at two installations in Iraq.

The Pentagon said on Jan. 8 that it believed Iran fired with the intent to kill.

Even so, Trump's takeaway was that "Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world."

Despite such conciliatory talk, the region remained on edge, and American troops including a quick-reaction force dispatched over the weekend, were on high alert. Last week Iranian-backed militia besieged the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and Tehran's proxies in the region remain able to carry out attacks such as the one on Dec. 27 that killed a U.S. contractor and set off the most recent round of hostilities.

Hours after Trump spoke, an 'incoming' siren went off in Baghdad's Green Zone after what seemed to be small rockets "impacted" the diplomatic area, a Western official said. There were no reports of casualties.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that it was "perhaps too early to tell" if Iran will be satisfied that the missile strikes were sufficient to avenge the Soleimani...