The US is deploying a B-52 bomber force alongside an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East amid heightened tensions with Iran.
The US Air Force is dispatching four long-range B-52 bombers, capable of carrying 30,000 kilograms of bombs and flying at heights of 15,000 metres. They will operate from Qatar’s Al Udeid Air base, a regular regional hub for the US Air Force, reports CBS News.
Defence officials have refused to comment about when the warplanes will arrive in the Middle East.
CENTCOM spokesman Captain Bill Urban said in a statement: "We are not going to provide a specific timeline for that deployment".
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which was slated for deployment to the Persian Gulf region, is cancelling other port visits to arrive ahead of schedule. It is being accompanied by other warships: a guided-missile cruiser and four destroyers.
Earlier this week National Security Adviser John Bolton said they were being sent "in response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings" by Iran.
The announcement came as new violence flares between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza. The group Islamic Jihad, which has a foothold in Gaza, is seen as an Iranian proxy.
Meanwhile, Iran will announce today it is partially withdrawing from the nuclear deal it struck with world powers, its state-run news agency reported.
The expected decision comes a year to the day that President Donald Trump pulled America from the accord.
The terms of the withdrawal remain unclear, though the IRNA news agency said President Hassan Rouhani will explain Iran’s decision in letters to leaders of Britain, France and Germany that will be handed to ambassadors in Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif separately will write to the European Union, the agency said. Details of the letters will not be publicly disclosed, it said.
The letters will come as officials in the Islamic Republic previously warned that Iran might increase its uranium enrichment, potentially pulling away from a deal it has sought to salvage for months.
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog says Iran has continued to comply with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw it limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
But American sanctions have wreaked havoc on Iran’s already-struggling economy, while promised help from European partners in the deal haven’t alleviated the pain.
