Pentagon says ready to deploy new forces in Middle East
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US is ready to respond to threats to its interests in the Middle East.
According to RIA Novosti on August 7, the US Secretary of Defense said that the Pentagon is ready to deploy new forces in the Middle East to "cool down" and respond to threats.
“We remain ready to deploy to respond to threats to our security, our partners or our interests,” Secretary Austin said at a joint press conference with his Australian counterpart.
Secretary Austin said the US Department of Defense continues to take steps to de-escalate in the region and de-escalate by Iran and “its proxies.”
According to Mr. Austin, a strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier will replace the group commanded by the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in the region at the end of this August. In addition, destroyers and guided missile cruisers equipped with air defense systems will be sent there, and an additional fighter squadron will also be deployed.
The US currently maintains at least 12 warships in the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region. There is also the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group, a three-ship amphibious task force with more than 4,000 Marines and sailors.
Late on the evening of August 6, unidentified attackers fired two rockets at the Ain al-Assad air base in western Iraq. A Pentagon spokesman later said that seven US troops were injured in the attack.
Defense Secretary Austin and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Galant called the attack on the base a "dangerous escalation" and blamed Tehran and allied Shiite militias.
