3rd aircraft carrier heads to Mideast as US weighs new Iran strikes

WASHINGTON, DC

The U.S. military is dispatching roughly 9,000 troops aboard a group of ships to the Middle East, a U.S. official said on Oct.1, as President Donald Trump warned anew that new strikes against Iran could be on the horizon.

The troop movement, which includes a third aircraft carrier, underscores the rapidly evolving dynamic of Trump’s war against Iran as he ponders his next move, with midterm elections in the United States looming large and new signs that the nature of the conflict may be becoming more complex.

Trump has threatened that a post-midterm election escalation, despite his initial promises to Americans of a campaign that would last a matter of weeks, remains a viable option.

The group of ships now en route to the Middle East together carry over 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines, reports said.

It includes the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which recently deployed with the cruiser USS Chosin, and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group, which includes the USS John P. Murtha and USS Anchorage amphibious landing ships.

It could mean that three carriers are in the region as early as the end of October, according to the U.S. official.

Given the personnel already in place in the Middle East, the move would bring the U.S. naval presence to an unusually high number of more than 20,000 sailors and Marines as well as hundreds of aircraft.

The Navy previously had three carrier strike groups in the Middle East in April for the first time since 2003.

Trump, in a Time magazine interview published on Oct. 1, raised the prospects of new strikes, saying it is “possible” that he will ramp up bombing in Iran after the Nov. 3 elections in the United States.

When pressed, Trump said he could not go into further detail about his strategy.

“I can’t tell you that because look, you know, you’re asking, where are you going to bomb?” Trump said.

He said in the interview, conducted Monday, that he rejected the latest ceasefire proposal from Iran because “things that I wouldn’t have approved a year ago I wouldn’t have today.”

Trump cited as an example an offer from Iran to “open up” the Strait of Hormuz, the key energy shipping corridor, but said the overall proposal was “not good enough.”

Authorities believe that Iran might be looking to shift strategy just as the U.S. finds greater success in loosening Iran’s grip over the Strait of Hormuz and getting Gulf allies’ oil to market, while a Navy blockade is shutting down Iran’s own oil exports.