by Chris Menahan, Information Liberation:
In order to protect Israel from retaliation for the “unhelpful” assassinations they conducted in Iran and Lebanon, the US is gathering two aircraft carriers, dozens of fighter jets and attack planes, a bunch of Navy destroyers and cruisers, and 4,500 Marines and sailors in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
From New York Times, “U.S. to Send More Combat Aircraft and Warships to Middle East, Officials Say”:
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Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Friday ordered additional combat aircraft and missile-shooting warships to the Middle East in response to threats from Iran and its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to attack Israel in the coming days to avenge the death of Ismail Haniyeh, the Pentagon said.
The military will send one additional squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets, an unspecified number of additional Navy cruisers and destroyers capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, and, if needed, more land-based ballistic-missile defense systems.
To maintain the presence of an aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships in the region, Mr. Austin also directed the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, now in the eastern Pacific, to relieve the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the next couple of weeks when it is scheduled to return home.
Some ships already in the western Mediterranean Sea will move east, closer to the coast of Israel to provide more security, a senior Pentagon official said.
“Secretary Austin has ordered adjustments to U.S. military posture designed to improve U.S. force protection, to increase support for the defense of Israel and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies,” Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.
[…] Ms. Singh, in a news conference earlier on Friday, had raised the possibility that the United States could also send additional troops to operate whatever additional capabilities the Pentagon sends to the region. […]
She said that during a telephone call Mr. Austin held with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Friday morning, Mr. Austin “committed” that the United States would help Israel in its defense. “We will be bolstering our force protection in the region,” she said.
[…] In addition to some 80 land-based combat aircraft, the Pentagon has already deployed more than a dozen warships in the region. The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, equipped with about 40 F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-35 attack planes, is now steaming near the Arabian Gulf, while the U.S.S. Wasp amphibious ready group, with 30 airplanes and helicopters as well as 4,500 Marines and sailors, is operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
The White House said on Wednesday that Israel’s assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and Hezbollah senior military commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon were not helpful, as The Hill reported:
“These reports over the last 24, 48 hours certainly don’t help with the temperature going down,” John Kirby, the White House National Security Council communications adviser, told reporters. “We’re obviously concerned about escalation.”
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