US extends deployment of Bush aircraft carrier group after Syria attacks

182
2
US extends deployment of Bush aircraft carrier group after Syria attacks

The United States Navy USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier docks in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Haifa, Israel, July 1, 2017. The United States has decided to extend the deployment of George H.W. Bush carrier strike group to provide options to policymakers after last week's deadly attacks in Syria by Iran-backed forces, US military officials said on Friday.

The decision likely means that the Bush strike group and its more than 5,000 US forces, which are now in the European Command operational area, will not be returning to their home port in the US on schedule.

The US Central Command CENTCOM spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino confirmed the carrier group's extension, which was first reported by Reuters.

The extension of the George HW Bush Carrier Strike Group, comprised of the USS Leyte Gulf, the USS Delbert D. Black and the USNS Arctic, allows options to potentially bolster the capabilities of CENTCOM to respond to a range of emergencies in the Middle East, Buccino said in a statement.

Buccino also noted a scheduled, expedited deployment of a squadron of A-10 attack aircraft to the region.

One US official said the Bush strike group was expected to remain in the European Command area of responsibility and was speaking on condition of anonymity.

The deployment came a day after the Pentagon doubled its number of American troops wounded in the attacks in Syria last week, following the diagnosis of six US military personnel with traumatic brain injuries.

An American contractor was killed and another injured in the attacks.

President Joe Biden warned Iran last week that the US would act aggressively to protect Americans. The Pentagon has estimated that eight militants have been killed during US air strikes against two Iran-linked facilities in Syria during the tit-for-tat exchanges triggered by the first March 23 attack on a US base near the Syrian city of Hasaka.

The White House said on Monday that the incidents wouldn't trigger a US withdrawal from the nearly eight-year old US deployment to Syria, where American troops and local Kurdish-led partners are fighting the remnants of Islamic State.

The US has prioritized Russia, Ukraine, and the Asia-Pacific above the Middle East in its national security policies, after two decades of US intervention in the region during its global war against terrorism.

That has resulted in a decline in the US military personnel and assets in the Middle East.