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Fears of Middle East war grow after Hamas leader’s killing
- US said it would move additional warships and fighter jets to the region as the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance” readied its response
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Fears of a regional Middle East war grew on Saturday after the assassination of Hamas’s political leader, blamed on Israel, triggered vows of vengeance from Iran-backed Middle East groups.
The United States said it would move additional warships and fighter jets to the region as the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance” readied its response to the killing of Ismail Haniyeh.
The groups from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria have already been drawn into the nearly 10-month war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas.
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Iran on Saturday said it expects one of those groups, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, to hit deeper inside Israel and to no longer be confined to military targets.
With such talk growing, the Pentagon said it was bolstering its military presence in the Middle East to protect US personnel and defend Israel.
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An aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln will replace one helmed by the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the region, the Pentagon said.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin also ordered additional ballistic missile defence-capable cruisers and destroyers to the Middle
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