The US is surging forces, medics and weaponry to the Middle East to give President Donald Trump more military options as he considers expanding the conflict against Iran, according to people familiar with the matter, reported the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
In the past week, special-operations forces have deployed to the region from their US bases, according to flight-tracking data and US officials. Squadrons of jet fighters have been staged across the Middle East, and bomber aircraft at bases in the US and UK are on high alert to ramp up operations, according to one of the officials.
The preparations are the latest indication that Trump is considering escalating the conflict after three American soldiers were killed in an Iranian attack in Jordan over the weekend. A fourth servicemember was killed in Iraq during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone.
Additionally, more than 150 medics have arrived at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany in recent days, another official said. The hospital is the primary location for treating troops injured in combat in the Middle East.
A spokesman for the Pentagon referred questions about the troop movements to the US Central Command, which declined to discuss details, citing operational security. In a statement, the White House said Trump “always has all options at his disposal.”
Retired Gen. Joseph Votel, the former commander of CENTCOM and of US Special Operations Command, said the surge itself doesn’t necessarily mean major military operations are inevitable.
“The big idea here is to give the president and the secretary [of defense] the most flexibility, and the force the most options to present to them,” Votel said, according to the Journal.
Trump has ramped up his rhetoric against Iran, threatening to punish the country for the deaths of Americans and saying on Tuesday that he might order an assault on Pickaxe Mountain, where Iran is suspected to have buried nuclear-enrichment centrifuges.
The US military used a B-1 long-range bomber on Tuesday to strike Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran, US officials said, according to Axios.
It was the first time the US conducted a B-1 mission since fighting with Iran resumed.
Using B-1 bombers, which can carry two dozen 2,000-pound bombs or dozens of cruise missiles, signaled a significant escalation and expansion of the US military campaign. The B-1 can fly faster than the speed of sound at low altitudes while carrying the largest bomb load of any type of bomber.
The B-1 launched its mission from an airbase in the UK and was spotted on online plane tracking websites.
CENTCOM did not announce the B-1 mission in its statement on Tuesday about the strikes that day.
It is unclear what the B-1 attacked and whether the massive mission was more effective than other strikes over the last few days, said Axios.
The US conducted several B-1 missions during Operation Epic Fury, hitting missile bases, command centers, weapons storage facilities and air defense systems.
The US military also has sent aerial tankers, F-16 jet fighters from Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany and F-35s from the air base at Lakenheath, England, to the region, the Journal previously reported.
