US Forces Bolster Presence in the Middle East: 12 F-15 Jets Head to the Region
The United States continues to send military reinforcements to the Middle East amid Iran’s desire to retaliate against an earlier Israeli strike targeting sites within Iran.
Israeli media outlets, including “The Times of Israel,” reported today, Thursday, November 7th, that American F-15 military aircraft are en route to Jordan, ahead of an expected Iranian attack.
According to the Israeli newspaper, at least 12 aircraft are on their way to join the existing fighter
jets deployed there, without an official US announcement on this matter.
This information comes in the context of official Iranian confirmations of an impending retaliatory response after Israel’s airstrikes on Iran on October 26th, which Iran’s air defenses successfully countered in an operation Israel named “Operation Days of Repentance,” resulting in the deaths of four Iranian military personnel.
These reinforcements follow the US Department of Defense’s (Pentagon) announcement earlier
this month of sending additional military assets to the Middle East alongside military escalations
in Lebanon and Gaza. At that time, the Pentagon stated that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had
ordered the deployment of more weapons and military equipment to the region.
The reinforcements included ballistic missile defense destroyers, a squadron of fighter jets,
transport aircraft, and several long-range bombers of the B-52 type.
Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder stated in a release that these forces would arrive in the region
in the coming months, coinciding with the carrier group USS Abraham Lincoln preparing to depart from the area.
He added that these military movements are based on the decision to deploy the THAAD missile
defense system in Israel, along with a Marine infantry unit in the eastern Mediterranean.
On November 3rd, Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, confirmed
that “Operation Honest Promise 3” would be the response to the attack.
