OAN’s Jacob Miller
11:20 AM – Wednesday, November 1, 2023
The United States is sending more troops to the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region.
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On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced it was sending 300-troops to U.S. Central Command.
This comes as U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq have been attacked nearly 30-times over the past several weeks by proxies of Iran.
In the meantime, the Department of Defense announced that troops are only being stationed at Central Command (CENTCOM) for deterrence purposes. Officials added that they are not being deployed to hot zones.
“We do recognize there are broader tensions in the region as a result of that, which is why we have deployed additional capabilities into the Eastern Mediterranean and into the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility to provide us with the options necessary to respond to a wide variety of contingencies,” Brig. Gen Pat Ryder, spokesman for the Department of Defense said.
“So those forces are really there for two things,” he continued. “One, to deter any escalation of a broader regional conflict, which no one wants to see, and then, two, to ensure that we have the forces and capabilities in the theater to protect our forces that are there doing other important national security work, like the defeat ISIS mission, like keeping the lines of shipping open and working with regional partners to on air defense and things like that.”
Israel’s defense force is still conducting operations in its second phase of its war with the terrorist organization Hamas. Experts fear forces from Iran and Lebanon could join the fight.
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By: OAN
