The Pentagon announced that the United States will increase its military presence in the Middle East amid fears of a reprisal against Israel from the Islamic Republic and its allies over last week’s elimination of a senior Hamas leader.
The force augmentation will reportedly include the introduction of an unnamed fighter squadron, land-based air defense artillery batteries, ballistic missile-protection surface ships, and the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group.
The units are scheduled to join the USS Wasp Amphibious Ready Group already operating in the eastern Mediterranean and the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group currently patrolling in the Gulf of Oman.
The decision comes as officials from the Iran regime have vowed to respond to Wednesday’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas terrorist organization, while he was visiting the Iranian capital city to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The strike on the 62-year-old Islamist, purportedly by orders from Jerusalem, has led the Biden administration to anticipate the possibility that an incursion from Tehran may be active in the coming days.
The White House released a statement on the deployment, saying that by implementing the measures, President Biden “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.”
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