The USA fears an expansion of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Middle East. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a statement announcing an increase in his country’s military deployment in the region to prevent this. Austin says he made the decision “after having extensive discussions with President Biden about recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces in the Middle East region.” The Pentagon has not detailed this additional deployment as Israel prepares the ground offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’ deadly incursion into its territory on October 7.
“This additional deployment sends another message to those who want to expand this conflict,” Austin said in an interview with ABC this Sunday. “As President Biden has already said and as you have heard me say, if any group or country intends to expand this conflict and take advantage of this unfortunate situation that we are seeing, we advise them not to do so.” the right to defend ourselves and will not hesitate to take appropriate action,” he added.
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The Pentagon statement notes that Austin ordered the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery and “additional Patriot battalions” throughout the region to increase protection for U.S. forces, but without specify the number. Both cases involve missile defense systems like those used on Thursday to shoot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels from Yemen, which the Pentagon believes could be aimed at Israel.
Austin also points out that he diverted the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower and its escort ships to the region, even though it was already known that it had been moved to the area where the Gerald Ford, the largest American aircraft carrier, is located.
In addition, as part of prudent emergency planning, the Secretary of Defense “issued operational readiness orders for an additional number of forces to increase their readiness and their ability to respond quickly when necessary,” the statement said. , which is the case The number of additional troops it will put on alert for possible deployment is not quantified. The United States has already sent about 2,000 Marines to the region and placed as many others on alert in the past two weeks. “I will continue to assess our troop needs in the region and explore the possibility of deploying additional capabilities if necessary,” he said simply. According to Austin, the additional deployment will strengthen regional deterrence efforts, increase the protection of U.S. forces in the region and contribute to the defense of Israel.
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Urban combat
Austin, who speaks almost daily with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, noted in the television interview the difficulties of the ground operation in Gaza. “The first thing everyone should know, and I think everyone knows, is that urban combat is extremely difficult. “It’s slow progress,” he said, recalling that the capture of Mosul in Iraq in 2017, when the city was controlled by ISIS, took nine months. Austin led this operation since he was in charge of U.S. Central Command at the time.
“This may be a little more difficult because of the underground tunnel network that Hamas has built over time and the fact that it has had a lot of time to prepare for a fight.” So I think we will see a fight in the future “It will be characterized by a lot of improvised explosive devices, a lot of booby traps and really intense activity,” he explained, also noting that he had asked his Israeli counterpart to “carry out his combat operations in accordance with the laws of war,” enabling corridors for the evacuation of civilians and the provision of humanitarian assistance.
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