Photo : YONHAP News
The Pentagon is transferring additional Marines and warships to the Middle East as U.S. President Donald Trump has announced there would be a series of attacks against Iran over the next week.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth approved a request from U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, to deploy elements of an amphibious ready group and an attached Marine expeditionary unit.
Citing two officials, the WSJ report said the Japan-based USS Tripoli and its attached Marines has departed for the region as Marines are already stationed there to support the Iran operation.
The New York Times (NYT) reported that about 2,500 Marines aboard as many as three warships have departed the Indo-Pacific to join roughly 50,000 U.S. forces already in the Middle East.
In an interview with Fox News Radio on Friday, Trump said Iran would be hit “very hard” over the next week, and that the war would be over when he feels it in his bones.
Trump, who earlier said the U.S. Navy would start escorting tankers through the strategically important Strait of Hormuz if necessary, also told reporters Friday that such operation “will happen soon.”