Defense Department press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters the new detachment was being sent “in light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution.”
“We are sending a small number of additional U.S. military personnel to augment our forces that are already in the region,” Ryder said, declining to offer specifics about the new contingent, though he referred to them as ground troops.
The U.S. already has an array of forces positioned in the Middle East, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and the ballistic missile submarine USS Georgia, along with an additional squadron of F-22 fighter jets. In the eastern Mediterranean Sea, there are six U.S. warships, including the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship.
Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are teetering toward full-scale war amid a deadly exchange of fire across the border in the past week.
Israeli forces targeted some 300 Hezbollah sites and killed at least 245 people in Lebanon on Monday, according to Lebanese health authorities, as well as wounding around 1,000 more, marking one of the deadliest days of fighting in the country in recent history.
Ahead of the strikes, Israeli officials had warned Lebanese civilians living near Hezbollah sites to evacuate.
Hezbollah fired some 130 rockets at the Israeli city of Haifa on Monday, claiming to have struck or targeted Israeli military warehouses and defense contractor sites.
The escalation comes after intense Israeli strikes last week that killed top Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon.
Israel is also accused of detonating pager and handheld radio devices in Lebanon last week, killing at least 37 people and wounding thousands.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
