Additional U.S. troops are being rushed to the Middle East during a rise in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah terrorist forces in Lebanon that has elevated risks of a wider regional war, the Pentagon said Monday.
AP reports Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder would provide no details on how many additional forces or what they would be tasked to do. Their precise geographical region of deployment has also not been disclosed.
The U.S. currently has about 40,000 troops in the region. Just last month U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and told the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area.
As Breitbart News reported, the U.S. believes Iran or its proxies may launch a strike against Israel as soon as this week.
The new deployments come as Israel is preparing to conduct further operations and the State Department is warning Americans to leave Lebanon as the risk of a regional war increases.
“Due to the unpredictable nature of ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and recent explosions throughout Lebanon, including Beirut, the U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial options still remain available,” the State Department cautioned Saturday, as the AP report noted.
The push of more U.S. forces into the troubled Middle East came as Israel attacked hundreds of Hezbollah targets on Monday in airstrikes that Lebanese health authorities said killed at least 274 people, making it the deadliest day in Lebanon in nearly a year of conflict, CBC News reported.
More to come…