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A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***Things are heating up between Iran and the United States in the Middle East. On Sunday, Jan. 28, three U.S. servicemembers were killed in an Iranian-linked drone attack on the Tower 22 U.S. military outpost in Jordan, near the Syrian border, one of over 160 such attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq and Syria since October. In response, the U.S. launched simultaneous attacks on 85 Iranian-linked targets this weekend, stoking fears of an even wider regional conflict in the Middle East. We asked three experts to tell us about these escalating tensions and to answer one pressing question: Is the United States headed for a direct conflict with Iran?Read more below.Editor’s note: This newsletter was completed on the afternoon of Monday, Jan. 5, 2024, and reflects developments to that point. Afshon Ostovar Author, Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran’s Revolutionary GuardsThe U.S. military continues to contend with Iranian-backed proxies across the Middle East. A recent Iranian-linked drone attack, which killed three U.S. soldiers and injured dozens more in Jordan, threatened to spark U.S. retaliation against Iran. The Joseph Biden administration announced a multitiered plan to counter the aggression, which began on Friday with major strikes against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps positions in Syria and Iraq aimed at degrading weapons stores and logistical capabilities. The delay in those strikes — which occurred almost a week after the Jordan attack — allowed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps time to pull assets out of harm’s way. Even though Iran signaled a desire to deescalate earlier in the week, Iranian-backed militias