US deploys 12 warships to Middle East
The US Defense Department has deployed 12 warships to the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, and the Mediterranean Sea, as Israeli strikes hit Beirut and Tehran, according to the Washington Post, citing an unnamed defense official.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt and six destroyers were in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, he said.A group of three landing ships and two destroyers with 4,000 marines and sailors was sent to the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
The defense official pointed out that the Pentagon did not announce any additional deployment of forces against the backdrop of rising tensions in the region due to the deaths of senior officials of the Palestinian movement Hamas and the Shiite group Hezbollah.
On July 30, Israeli warplanes fired four missiles at the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiya, which serves as a Hezbollah stronghold. Following the strike, Hezbollah military chief Fouad Shokr died in hospital.
On July 31, Hamas said that Ismail Haniyeh, head of the movement’s political bureau, was killed in an Israeli strike on his residence in Tehran. Deputy Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau Mousa Abu Marzook has warned that Haniyeh’s assassination will not go unanswered.
