The United States is sending roughly 9,000 troops aboard a group of ships to the Middle East, a US official said Thursday, as President Donald Trump again raised the prospect of new strikes on Iran.
The deployment includes a third aircraft carrier and more than 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines with the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group. Combined with forces already in the region, the US naval presence could exceed 20,000 sailors and Marines by late October, the official told the Associated Press, according to Firstpost.
Trump, in a Time magazine interview published Thursday, said it was “possible” he would intensify bombing of Iran after the November midterm elections. He also told reporters he was hearing that Iran may be linked to Wednesday’s Flydubai co-pilot attack on an Israel-bound flight, and warned Tehran would be “hit very hard” if that link were confirmed.
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