US aircraft carrier in the Middle East is heading home
According to United States officials, the USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading home, ending the Pentagon’s rare move to keep two US Navy aircraft carriers in the Middle East over the past several weeks.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the Roosevelt to extend its deployment for a short time and remain in the region as the USS Abraham Lincoln was pushed to get to the area more quickly. The administration of US President Joe Biden beefed up the US military presence there to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard US troops.
The decision to bring the Roosevelt home comes as the war in Gaza has dragged on for 11 months, with tens of thousands of people dead, and international efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas repeatedly stalled as they accuse each other of making additional and unacceptable demands.
US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements, told AP news agency that the San Diego, California-based Roosevelt and the USS Daniel Inouye, a destroyer, are expected to be in the Indo-Pacific Command’s region today.
US ending aircraft carrier’s deployment in Middle East is ‘a message’
Elijah Magnier, a military analyst, says one of the reasons the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is being sent back to the United States after an extended deployment in the Middle East is to send a message to Israel.
“It’s a message to the Israelis that we don’t have any appetite to escalate in the Middle East and that the response, the retaliation from Iran, is not imminent, and you do not create retaliation against the Iranians or start a war with Lebanon,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the US is not willing to “accommodate” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “continue endless war”.
“Aircraft carriers are not just warships, but they are mobile military bases capable of projecting power across vast distance,” he said. “The mere fact that the US is recalling its aircraft carrier, carries multiple layers of messages.”
Three killed in Israeli attack on southern Lebanon
At least three people, including a child, have been killed in an Israeli drone attack on a village in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) says.
The attack targeted two motorcycles in Kafr Jouz. A vehicle passing by was also struck in the attack, NNA said.
At least three others have been wounded, it added.
