US rushes strike group to West Asia region amid Israel’s fears of retaliation from Iran
The United States is sending a guided missile submarine to the West Asia region and speeding the transit of an aircraft carrier strike group, as Israel remains on high alert for retaliatory attacks from Iran.
The Pentagon confirmed late Sunday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the dispatch of the USS Georgia guided missile submarine to the region.
He further ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, equipped with F-35C fighter jets, to accelerate its ongoing transit to the area. The strike group will join the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and its accompanying warships already deployed to the Gulf of Oman.
The US deployment was announced following talks between Austin and Israel's minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant.
Senior officials in Washington have time and again vowed to keep providing “ironclad” support for the Israeli regime as the latter presses on with its genocidal war on Gaza.
Tensions have risen across the region following the assassination of the head of the political bureau of the Hamas resistance movement, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran last month.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the assassination of Haniyeh, in the Iranian capital Tehran, was designed and executed by Israel, with support from the US administration.
Haniyeh was assassinated on July 31, while he was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warned the occupying regime of a “harsh punishment,” saying Iran sees it as its duty to avenge the blood of Haniyeh.
Israel fears Iran could coordinate its attack with Hezbollah, which has vowed its own retaliation for Israel’s killing last month of Fuad Shakur, a top commander.
The back-to-back assassinations have fueled concern the Israeli aggression in Gaza was turning into a broader regional war.
General Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement that Austin and Gallant also discussed Israel's military operations in Gaza.
The call came a day after an Israeli airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza early Saturday, killing at least 100 people, in one of the deadliest attacks of the 10-month Israeli aggression.
The Israeli war machine, fueled by the US, continues to take more Palestinian lives in the Gaza Strip.
The Zionist regime’s onslaught since October last year has killed nearly 40,000 Gazans including 16,500 children and injured more than 92,000 others.
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