WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East and is telling the USS Abraham Lincoln’s aircraft carrier strike group to sail faster to the area, the Defense Department said Sunday.
The measures come as the US and other allies push for Israel and Hamas to do so reach a cease-fire agreement which may help calm rising tensions in the region after the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
Officials have been looking for retaliation from both Iran and Hezbollah for the killings, and the United States has stepped up its presence in the region.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said in a statement that Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant earlier in the day, and reiterated the U.S. commitment “to take every possible step to defend Israel and noted the strengthening of the U.S. military force posture and capabilities throughout the Middle East in light of escalating regional tensions.”
The Lincoln, which has been in the Asia Pacific, had already been ordered to the region to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt’s aircraft carrier strike group, which is scheduled to begin heading home from the Middle East. Last week, Austin said the Lincoln would arrive in the Central Command area by the end of the month.
It was not clear Sunday what his latest order means, or how much faster the Lincoln will steam to the Middle East. The carrier has F-35 fighter jets on board, along with F/A-18 fighter jets also on the carrier.
Ryder also did not say how quickly the guided-missile submarine USS Georgia would get to the region.
He said Austin and Gallant also discussed Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the importance of mitigating civilian casualties.
The call comes a day after an Israeli airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza early Saturday, killing at least 80 people and wounding nearly 50 others, Palestinian health officials said, in one of the deadliest attacks in 10 months. Israel-Hamas war.