The US military is sending more planes and warships to the Middle East
The Pentagon will send an additional fighter squadron and warships to the Middle East to help defend Israel if Iran responds militarily to this week's death of Hamas' top political leader in Tehran, which Iran has blamed on Israel.
The United States will also maintain an aircraft carrier presence in the Middle East, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordering the USS Abraham Lincoln to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which was on a short-term deployment there.
“The Department of Defense continues to take steps to mitigate the possibility of regional escalation by Iran or Iran’s partners and proxies,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement.
Austin "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," the Pentagon said in a statement issued Friday.
"The Department is also taking steps to increase our readiness to deploy additional land-based ballistic missile defense," a Pentagon press release stated.
Concerns have been voiced that an Iranian reaction might ignite a regional conflict that extends beyond Israel's conflict with Hamas in light of last week's assassinations of top Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut and senior political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran.
The new deployments, which were made public on Friday, are meant to help Israel in the event that Iran retaliates against it for an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria, last April by launching hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at it. They will also act as a deterrent to prevent a larger conflict.
Austin issued orders on Friday that could involve moving some of the six U.S. Navy destroyers that are currently stationed in the Middle East into the Eastern Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.
The USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship, and two other amphibious ships transporting 2,200 Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) are also based in the eastern Mediterranean.
According to American authorities, in the event that it becomes necessary, the ships and the Marines on board might be used to evacuate American personnel stationed in the area.
