(Washington) US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized Monday due to health complications, the Pentagon announced Friday, as the United States faces a growing crisis in the Middle East.
Lloyd Austin was hospitalized at the Walter Reed military hospital near Washington on the evening of 1er January “for complications that arose following a non-emergency medical procedure,” Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said in a statement, without specifying the nature of the complications or the length of the hospital stay.
“He is recovering well and should return to full duty today” (Friday), the spokesperson said.
Because the Defense Department had not disclosed Mr. Austin’s hospitalization earlier, Friday’s announcement drew criticism from the Pentagon Journalists Association.
The association expressed “significant concerns” in a letter to the Pentagon, saying that delaying the announcement for days until “late in the evening on a Friday is an outrage.”
“The public has the right to know when members of the American cabinet are hospitalized, under anesthesia or when tasks are delegated following a medical procedure,” emphasizes the association.
“At every moment, the Deputy Secretary of Defense was ready to act and use the minister’s prerogatives, if necessary,” Pat Ryder said on Friday, again without specifying whether such use had been required.
A Pentagon spokesperson then told AFP that Deputy Minister Kathleen Hicks was “automatically authorized to assume the minister’s duties if he is unable to do so”, and that she had indeed “made routine decisions to the account of [Lloyd Austin] this week “.
The hospitalization of the head of the Pentagon comes in a context of strong tensions for the United States in the Middle East, linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have increased attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea, while other groups in Iraq and Syria have targeted U.S. forces based in those countries for aid. missiles and drones.
On Thursday, the United States carried out a strike in Baghdad which killed the leader of a pro-Iran armed group involved, according to Washington, in attacks against American forces in Iraq.
“The president and the minister had already authorized the operation in Iraq, the minister was aware,” a Pentagon spokesperson told AFP.