US Sends 3rd Carrier Group to Middle East as Trump Warns of Post-Election Iran Strikes
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 2
US Sends 3rd Carrier Group to Middle East as Trump Warns of Post-Election Iran Strikes
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 2
Summary
The Pentagon is sending the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and USS Makin Island amphibious group toward the Middle East, adding more than 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines.
That deployment could put three US carriers in the region by late October and lift the naval presence above 20,000 sailors and Marines, plus hundreds of aircraft.
Trump told Time it is “possible” he will intensify bombing after the 3 November midterms, while refusing to detail targets and saying Iran’s latest ceasefire proposal was “not good enough.”
He said Tehran had offered to “open up” the Strait of Hormuz but rejected the broader terms, and argued the war could either hurt Republicans politically or help by blocking an Iranian nuclear weapon.
The buildup would match April’s three-carrier concentration—the first since 2003—and extends a war Trump had initially said would last only weeks.