(Washington) U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to “expedite its transit” to the Middle East, where fears of a regionalization of the Israel-Hamas war continue to grow, the Pentagon said Sunday.
Mr. Austin ordered the fleet led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is carrying F-35C fighter jets, to move faster, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said, amid the risk of a major offensive by Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah or Iran itself against Israel.
Lloyd Austin had a conversation with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Sunday and also ordered the deployment of the nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine USS Georgia to the same area, Ryder added.
According to him, the two men discussed “the importance of reducing harm to civilians, making progress toward a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza,” as well as deterring Iranian-backed groups from attacking.
The situation has been all the more tense since the assassinations in July of Hezbollah military leader Fouad Chokr, near Beirut in a strike claimed by Israel, and that in Tehran of Hamas political leader Ismaël Haniyeh, attributed to Israel.
Washington announced last week that it was strengthening its military presence in the Middle East, deploying more warships and fighter jets. The USS Abraham Lincoln is to join another American aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, in the region.
The war between Israel and Hamas was triggered by an attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people abducted, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom are dead, according to the army.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza has left at least 39,790 dead, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry, which does not detail the number of civilians and fighters killed.