US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered an aircraft carrier group to hasten its arrival in the Middle East, the Pentagon said Sunday, as mounting tensions raise fears of a region-wide war.
It is a show of support for key US ally Israel after Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah group vowed to avenge last month’s killings of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
Austin ordered the aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, and equipped with F-35 fighters, to “accelerate its transit” to the region, said Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder.
He said Austin, who spoke with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Sunday, had also ordered the USS Georgia guided missile submarine to the area.
Ryder said the pair discussed “the importance of mitigating civilian harm, progress towards securing a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza,” and efforts to deter aggression by Iran-aligned groups in the region.
The United States announced last week that it was deploying the strike group, as well as additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers, and a fighter squadron.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said an Israeli air strike later on Sunday killed two fighters from the Iran-backed group, with the health ministry reporting another death from an attack days ago.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Israel triggered offensive in Gaza.
A strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs late last month killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, just hours before the assassination, blamed on Israel, of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Air France and its subsidiary Transavia France have again extended the suspension of their flights to Beirut, through tomorrow, because of continued tensions in the region, the companies said yesterday.
The flights have been suspended since July 29 because of the “security situation in Lebanon” and their resumption “will be subject to a new assessment of the situation on the ground”, Air France said in a statement.
The airline said “the safety of its clients and crews are its absolute priority”.
