NY Governor Kathy Hochul wants everyone to know that if you vote for Trump, you are “anti woman” and “anti American, because you have just trashed American values and what our country is all about.”
The IDF estimates that some 2,000 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed by troops and in airstrikes during the ongoing ground offensive in southern Lebanon. Israeli troops have killed some 900 terrorists during an ongoing operation in northern Gaza’s Jabalia. Another 700 Palestinians have been detained, among them at least 300 have so far been confirmed to be members of terror groups.
A man who took in an orphaned squirrel and made it a social media star vowed Saturday that New York state’s decision to seize and euthanize the animal “won’t go unheard.” “We will make a stance on how this government and New York state utilizes their resources,” Mark Longo said in a phone interview. He declined to specify his possible next steps but said officials would hear from him soon about what happened to Peanut the squirrel and Fred, a rescued raccoon that was also confiscated and put down. The state Department of Environmental Conservation took the animals Wednesday from Longo’s home and animal sanctuary in rural Pine City, near the Pennsylvania border. The agency said it had gotten complaints that wildlife was being kept illegally and potentially unsafely. State law requires people to get a license if they wish to own a wild animal. Longo has said he was working to get Peanut — also known as P’Nut or PNUT — certified as an educational animal. The DEC and the Chemung County Health Department said Friday that the squirrel and raccoon were euthanized so they could be tested for rabies after Peanut bit someone involved in the investigation. Longo said Saturday that he didn’t see Peanut bite anyone during what he described as an hourslong, heavy-handed search. The authorities haven’t spoken with him since they left the property, he said. “Honestly, this still kind of feels surreal, that the state that I live in actually targeted me and took two of the most beloved animals on this planet away, didn’t even quarantine them. They took them from my house and just killed them,” he said. A request for comment was sent to the DEC on Saturday. Longo said he started caring for Peanut after the animal’s mother was hit by a car in New York City seven years ago. Tens of thousands of users of Instagram, TikTok and other social media platforms glimpsed the animal sporting tiny hats, doing tricks and nibbling on waffles clutched in his little paws. Longo said Fred the raccoon was dropped off on his doorstep a few months ago. After helping the animal recover from injuries, Longo said, he and his wife were planning to release the creature into the woods. (AP)
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged its allies to stop “watching” and take steps before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield, and the country’s army chief warned that his troops are facing “one of the most powerful offensives” by Moscow since the all-out war started more than two years ago. Zelenskyy raised the prospect of a preemptive Ukrainian strike on camps where the North Korean troops are being trained and said Kyiv knows their location. But he said Ukraine can’t do it without permission from allies to use Western-made long-range weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia. “But instead … America is watching, Britain is watching, Germany is watching. Everyone is just waiting for the North Korean military to start attacking Ukrainians as well,” Zelenskyy said in a post late Friday on the Telegram messaging app. The Biden administration said Thursday that some 8,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia’s Kursk region near Ukraine’s border and are preparing to help the Kremlin fight against Ukrainian troops in the coming days. On Saturday, Ukraine’s military intelligence said that more than 7,000 North Koreans equipped with Russian gear and weapons had been transported to areas near Ukraine. The agency, known by its acronym GUR, said that North Korean troops were being trained at five locations in Russia’s Far East. It did not specify its source of information. Western leaders have described the North Korean troop deployment as a significant escalation that could also jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region, and open the door to technology transfers from Moscow to Pyongyang that could advance the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program. North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met with her Russian counterpart in Moscow on Friday. Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly said they need permission to use Western weapons to strike arms depots, airfields and military bases far from the border to motivate Russia to seek peace. In response, U.S. defense officials have argued that the missiles are limited in number, and that Ukraine is already using its own long-range drones to hit targets farther into Russia. Moscow has also consistently signaled that it would view any such strikes as a major escalation. President Vladimir Putin warned on Sept. 12 that Russia would be “at war” with the U.S. and NATO states if they approve them. Ukraine facing “one of most powerful” Russian offensives since war began Zelenskyy’s call came shortly before Ukraine’s top commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, said on Saturday that his troops are struggling to stem “one of the most powerful offensives” by Russia since its all-out invasion of its southern neighbor in February 2022. Writing on Telegram following a call with a top Czech military official, Syrskyi hinted that Ukrainian units are taking heavy losses in the fighting, which he said “require constant renewal of resources.” While Syrskyi did not specify where the heavy fighting took place, Russia has for months been conducting a ferocious campaign along the eastern front in Ukraine, gradually compelling Kyiv to surrender ground. But Moscow has struggled to push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk border region following an incursion almost three months ago. Dozens injured in Russian strikes on Ukraine Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv overnight into Saturday, killing a policeman and injuring dozens, […]
The IAF struck and killed Jaafar Khader Faour, the Hezbollah commander responsible for the Nasser Unit’s missile and rocket systems, in Jouaiyya, southern Lebanon, the IDF announced. Also killed was the unit’s drone operations leader. Faour had overseen numerous rocket attacks, including strikes on Israeli communities in the Golan Heights, and orchestrated the first rocket launches into Israel on October 8. Notably, Faour was behind a recent attack on Metula, which killed five civilians, as well as other deadly strikes on Israeli areas.
On Fri night a surface-to-surface missile launched from Lebanon by Hezbollah struck a residential building in the Arab city of Tira in central Israel, causing at least seven injuries. Among the injured, two people sustained moderate injuries, five others had minor injuries, and an additional two were treated for anxiety.
The IDF has announced the elimination of two senior Hezbollah commanders, Mousa Izz al-Din, who led forces in the coastal sector, and Hassan Majid Daib, the group’s artillery commander for the same region. This targeted operation, conducted in the Tyre area, neutralized leaders responsible for launching over 400 projectiles into Israel during October alone, including the recent rocket attack on Haifa Bay. In the past day, the Israeli Air Force also struck more than 120 Hezbollah and Hamas targets, hitting anti-tank launch sites, weapon storage facilities, and command centers in Lebanon. IDF ground troops are continuing pinpoint raids in southern Lebanon, locating and destroying Hezbollah’s military infrastructure and neutralizing additional operatives. In Gaza, IDF troops have been actively engaging in the Jabaliya area, where they report having eliminated dozens of militants through coordinated air and ground operations. Further south, in Rafah and central Gaza, IDF forces dismantled weapons depots and other terror infrastructure.
In recent operations, the IDF’s 5th Brigade located and dismantled an extensive underground Hamas weapons manufacturing site in the central Gaza Strip, near Zeitoun. Discovered in a tunnel complex, the facility was used to produce rockets, shells, grenades, and included diving equipment for sea infiltration attempts into Israeli territory. The tunnel network also featured fully equipped living quarters with food supplies, cooking facilities, and offices. Engineering units, in collaboration with the Yahalom Unit and the Defense Ministry’s Engineering and Construction Directorate, neutralized the manufacturing site, significantly disrupting Hamas’s weapons production capabilities.
Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump zeroed in on the Sun Belt on Saturday as they embarked on one last weekend quest to sway every undecided voter in the battleground states. The presidential candidates pitched rival agendas on the economy — and more — that each insisted is what Americans want. “We have overcome every attack, every abuse and even two assassination attempts,” Trump said at a rally in Gastonia, North Carolina, outside Charlotte. “And now it all comes down to this.” Harris has been urging her supporters to vote early so she can be elected and provide the “new generation of leadership” that she argues she represents. “I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America,” she said during remarks at a rally at the Atlanta Civic Center parking lot. She had to pause a few times to allow medics to attend to people who had fainted after spending hours in the heat. “It’s hot out here, Atlanta,” the vice president said. It was unclear whether Harris herself had voted early. Campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said Saturday that Harris’ plan is to vote by mail, but he could not say whether she had returned her ballot to her home state of California. Trump was expected to vote in person on Tuesday in Florida. “Anybody here already voted?” she asked the Atlanta crowd, which cheered loudly in response. “Oh wow. Oh my goodness. Thank you, thank you.” Saturday marked the beginning of a final, frenzied push by Harris, Trump, their running mates and their high-profile stand-ins to encourage people to vote early or in person on Tuesday, Election Day. To that end, Harris’ campaign hoped for a “high-impact” moment with a two-minute spot to air Sunday during NFL games on CBS and FOX, including the Green Bay Packers against the Detroit Lions, two swing state teams. It shows Harris interacting with people during the campaign and talking directly to viewers. “Now I’m asking for your vote because as president I will get up every day and fight for the American people,” she says at the end. Campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon projected confidence Saturday on a conference call with reporters as both sides embarked on that final sprint to get out the vote. “If you can hear the joy in my voice it is because we are in GOTV weekend,” she said. Trump, meanwhile, spoke wistfully, as he has at some of his recent rallies, about how after nearly a decade of campaigning, his final race is nearing its end. “We’re going to meet again many times I hope,” said the former president, who also was stopping in Salem, Virginia — not a battleground state — before returning to North Carolina for a late-night rally in Greensboro. “This has been the thrill of a lifetime for me and for you.” As both Harris and Trump moved on to their next stops, their planes met on the tarmac in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Harris was ending her campaign day. President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race this summer when it became clear he could not win, was doing his part for the Democrats by making what could be his final 2024 campaign stop. Biden, who turns 82 later this month, […]
The IDF announced updates to the Home Front Command’s defensive guidelines for select areas, effective today at 18:00. Following a situational assessment, the threat level in the Lower Galilee and parts of the southern Golan, including specific communities within the Emek HaYarden municipalities, will be upgraded from “partial” to “full.” Gatherings of up to 2,000 people will now be allowed in these areas. Guidelines for the rest of the country remain unchanged. The latest directives are available through the Home Front Command’s official channels, National Emergency Portal, and app.
Donald Trump will rally supporters in North Carolina every day until Tuesday’s election, a flurry of late activity in the only swing state that he won in both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. Even as Trump looks to expand the electoral map and project strength with trips to New Mexico and Virginia, two Democratic states not widely viewed as competitive, he is putting considerable time into North Carolina, which last backed a Democrat for president in 2008. The former president’s path to the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency gets significantly more complicated if he loses North Carolina. The fast-growing Southern state gave Trump his smallest margin of victory — 1.3 percentage points — over Democrat Joe Biden four years ago. Trump campaigned in Gastonia, west of Charlotte, on Saturday and was scheduled to be in Greensboro later in the day, with a stop in Salem, Virginia, in between. He will be in the eastern city of Kinston on Sunday and in Raleigh on Monday. Those four rallies will bring his total events in North Carolina since Oct. 1 to nine. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has been in the state six times during the same period, most recently on Friday. Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival, will also be in North Carolina on Saturday for a concert and rally in Charlotte. Her campaign has not announced any other travel to the state before Election Day. The extensive damage from Hurricane Helene across western North Carolina has created a dose of uncertainty about the state of play here. Flooding destroyed homes and displaced residents in several counties, including the liberal city of Asheville and the conservative rural areas surrounding it. Trump’s team has said it is confident about his chances in North Carolina. Democrats see Trump’s attention on the state as a signal of optimism for Harris. “The repeat appearances may signal Trump’s campaign is in trouble,” said Democratic state Rep. Marcia Morey of Durham. “If Trump continues with his dangerous, violent rhetoric these last few days, it may backfire. A campaign of personal retribution does not win votes from people.” Trump adviser Jason Miller said Trump’s late-campaign travels are not a signal of alarm. “I’m not worried about anything,” Miller told reporters Friday. “We have a smart strategy that’s going to get President Trump across 270, maybe even a couple of states that surprise you, that slide in there. But we’re going to follow our strategy. Our strategy comes from our data and our targeting.” As he does at most of his events in North Carolina, Trump said in Gastonia that his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, whom he installed as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, is from the state, and that Lara and Eric Trump named their daughter Carolina. “It’s an amazing place. You’ve been through a lot,” Trump said, alluding to the hurricane before repeating a debunked claim that the Federal Emergency Management Agency prioritized people living in the country illegally over hurricane victims. “Your government has not helped you too much, I can tell you. Your government, FEMA, has let you down because they wanted to spend the money on illegal migrants instead.” Roughly half of North Carolina’s 7.8 million registered voters had already voted as of Friday, buoyed by early in-person […]
The final doors are being knocked, ads are blaring and candidates are making a last pitch to voters. Even with the high-energy final push, the races for control of Congress are at a stalemate, essentially a toss-up for the House and fight to the finish for the Senate. The outcome of Tuesday’s election will shape the country’s future, determining whether the new White House has allies or skeptics on Capitol Hill — or faces a divided Congress like this past session, which has been among the most tumultuous and unproductive in modern times. As voters assess their presidential options between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, they also are sizing up who will represent them in Congress. “This is why I’m an independent,” said voter Gary Motta of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, who isn’t happy with either choice for president, as he showed up at an early Sunday morning event for Republican Kevin Coughlin, who is trying to unseat Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes. The struggle for control of Congress has gone on for months. Candidates have tussled over the big issues — the economy, the border, reproductive health care and the future of democracy — but also over Congress itself, which had a chaotic session as the GOP-led House ousted its speaker and barely fended off government shutdowns. This is the first presidential election since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and many Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s White House win over Trump are up for reelection. Republican candidates, many backed by the former president, are finding themselves having to answer for him on several fronts. Among them is the decision by the Supreme Court, with three justices who were nominated by Trump, that ended the right to abortion access Democrats face tough questions over the Biden-Harris record on the U.S.-Mexico border and on inflation during their time at the White House. Most of the closely contested House campaigns are being waged beyond the presidential swing states, including in New York and California, where Republican Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted as speaker and then left Congress, had made inroads in his home state. Democrats under New York’s Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s House leader, are now trying to win them back. Starting Saturday, California Rep. Pete Aguilar, the Democratic caucus chairman, is making a nine-stop swing through the Golden State to win back seats. “There’s a lot of energy out there,” said Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in an interview from Omaha, Nebraska, a surprising battleground, after a swing through New York. “We’re just working hard to get out the vote.” She said there are “tons of volunteers on the ground, lots of energy, people very, very focused. They understand there’s a lot at stake.” With the ever-escalating world of campaign fundraising, this election year stands apart: A whopping $2.5 billion is being spent to win the Senate and almost $1 billion on the House. The Senate is the Republicans’ to lose, a coda to the long stewardship of their party leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He recruited wealthy Republican candidates, many backed by Trump, to face off against a half-dozen incumbent Democrats facing tough reelections. In Montana, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is in one of the most competitive […]
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The pictures of the smiling toddlers on the wall somehow survived. Most everything else in the daycare — the cradles, the highchairs, the toys — was ruined when a crushing wall of water swept through Paiporta, turning the Valencia municipality of 30,000 into the likely epicenter of Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory. “We have lost everything,” Xavi Pons told The Associated Press. He said the water level was above his head inside what had been the daycare run by his wife’s family for half a century, and he pointed to the knee-high mark where the mud reached. “I have lived here all my life. This had never happened and nobody could have imagined it would,” Pons said. “All of Paiporta is like this, it is all in ruins.” Authorities say at least 62 people died in Paiporta, of the 211 confirmed deaths from flash floods in Spain on Tuesday and Wednesday. The majority of those deaths happened in the eastern region of Valencia, and local media have labeled Paiporta the “ground zero” of the floods. Four days have passed since the tsunami-like floods swept through the southern outskirts of Valencia city, covering many communities with sticky, thick mud. The clean-up task ahead remains gargantuan, and the hunt for bodies continues. Many streets in Paiporta remain impassable to all vehicles but bulldozers, stacked as they are with piles of sodden furniture and household items and countless wrecked cars. Every foot is caked with mud. Some people wield poles to steady their step as if walking these streets is a hike through a marsh. A washing machine rests on its side among household junk in a church square. An enormous tree trunk rests inside a store that is missing a wall. An antique chests of drawers, paintings and a teddy bear, all still identifiable among the unrecognizable flotsam trapped in the all-consuming mire. Lidia Giménez, a school teacher, watched from her second-story apartment as the usually dry canal that divides the town — “Barranco del Poyo” — went from completely empty to overflowing within 15 minutes. She called the aftermath of the flood “a battlefield without bombs.” And it happened without a drop of rain falling on Paiporta. The storm had unleashed a downpour upstream. That deluge then hurled toward Paiporta and other areas closer to the Mediterranean coast that were devastated by the flash floods. Paiporta’s residents received no flood warnings from the regional government on their cellphones until two hours after the dangerous waters rushed through. The onslaught of water widened the river bank, tearing away buildings and a pedestrian bridge, stripping the metallic handrails from another bridge and pulling vehicles into the canal. Eight wheels are the only parts that remain visible of an overturned truck sunk in Poyo’s muddy bottom. The destruction could take weeks to clean. Thousands of volunteers walked for more than an hour from Valencia city to help the people of Paiporta, carrying buckets, brooms and shovels as they waded into the grime. Home owner Rafa Rosellón was waiting for heavy equipment to arrive to remove two cars — one half-resting on top of the other — that were washed away by the deluge and landed outside his home, blocking the front door. He had to unscrew a metal grating and slip though […]
According to a report by Axios, the United States recently cautioned Iran against launching additional attacks on Israel, emphasizing that Washington may not be able to prevent an Israeli response if aggression continues. A US official reportedly conveyed, *“We told the Iranians: We won’t be able to hold Israel back, and we won’t be able to make sure that the next attack will be calibrated and targeted as the previous one.”* The warning was allegedly delivered directly to Iranian officials, though one Israeli source claims it was communicated through Swiss intermediaries. The report comes amid escalating tensions, following threats from Iran’s supreme leader of a “crushing response” toward Israel and the US after recent attacks. Iran has indicated a readiness to retaliate, citing the October 26 Israeli strike on Iranian military bases that Tehran says resulted in five casualties. Neither Washington nor Tehran has publicly commented on the Axios report. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the U.S. with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its Oct. 26 attack on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people. “The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front,” Khamenei said in video released by Iranian state media. The supreme leader did not elaborate on the timing of the threatened attack, nor the scope. The U.S. military operates on bases throughout the Middle East, with some troops now manning a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery in Israel. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier likely is in the Arabian Sea, while Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday that more destroyers, fighter squadrons, tankers and B-52 long-range bombers would be coming to the region to deter Iran and its militant allies. The 85-year-old Khamenei had struck a more cautious approach in earlier remarks, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed.” Iran has launched two major direct attacks on Israel, in April and October. But efforts by Iran to downplay the Israeli attack faltered as satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed damage to military bases near Tehran linked to the country’s ballistic missile program, as well as at a Revolutionary Guard base used in satellite launches. Iran’s allies, called the “Axis of Resistance” by Tehran, also have been severely hurt by ongoing Israeli attacks, particularly Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran long has used those groups as both an asymmetrical way to attack Israel and as a shield against a direct assault. Some analysts believe those groups want Iran to do more to back them militarily. Iran, however, has been dealing with its own problems at home, as its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions and it has faced years of widespread, multiple protests. After Khamenei’s speech, the Iranian rial fell to 691,500 against the dollar, near an all-time low. It had been 32,000 rials to the dollar when Tehran reached its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Gen. Mohammad Ali Naini, a spokesman for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard which controls the ballistic missiles needed to target Israel, gave an interview published by the semiofficial Fars news agency just before Khamenei’s remarks were released. In it, he warned Iran’s response “will be wise, powerful and beyond the enemy’s comprehension.” “The leaders of the Zionist regime should look out from the windows of their bedrooms and protect their criminal pilots within their small territory,” he warned. Israeli air force pilots appear to have used air-launched ballistic missiles in the Oct. 26 attack. Khamenei on Saturday met with university students to mark Students Day, which commemorates a Nov. 4, 1978, incident in which Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting the rule of the shah at Tehran University. The shooting killed and wounded several students and further escalated the tensions consuming Iran at the time that eventually led […]
In a rare deep incursion into northern Lebanon, Israeli naval commandos captured a high-ranking Hezbollah operative late Friday night. The IDF confirmed Saturday that Shayetet 13, Israel’s elite naval commando unit, led the operation, marking a significant departure from typical ground activity limited to southern Lebanon. According to Lebanese media, Israeli special forces arrived by sea, conducted a swift raid on a chalet along the coast in Batroun—located about 140 kilometers north of Israel’s maritime border—and extracted a Hezbollah operative, identified as Imad Amhaz. The team departed quickly via speedboats. Amhaz, who the IDF views as a “significant source of knowledge” for Hezbollah’s naval capabilities, was reportedly studying at a civilian maritime institute, according to Lebanon’s Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamie, who added that Amhaz captained civilian ships. Photographs circulated on social media appeared to show Amhaz in a naval uniform, though his specific affiliations remain disputed. The IDF has previously conducted airstrikes in northern Lebanon, but ground operations have been largely restricted to southern regions, making this capture particularly notable. Soon after Israel went public about the operation, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on Lebanon’s foreign minister to file a complaint against Israel at the U.N. Security Council. Israel has carried out in the past commando operations deep inside Lebanon to kidnap or kill Hezbollah and Palestinian officials. Recounting the event, Lebanese residents from the apartment building where the man was seized said the armed group introduced themselves as state security. “We were terrified. They were breaking into the apartment next to ours,” Hussein Delbani told The Associated Press near where the man was captured. “I thought a state agency was doing a security operation,” said Delbani, who was displaced from south Lebanon a month ago when the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted. He said he saw from his balcony people down on the coast and they screamed again for him to go inside. Hamie told Al-Jadeed the man was a captain of civilian ships. He graduated in 2022 and in late September joined the Batroun’s Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute for additional courses. Hamie said that the man lived some 300 meters (980 feet) from the institute. Hamie’s remarks came shortly after two Lebanese journalists posted a video on social media showing what appeared to be about 20 armed men taking away a man from in front a house, his face covered with his shirt. Kandice Ardiel, a spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in south Lebanon, denied allegations by some local journalists who said that the peacekeepers helped the landing force in the operation. The U.N. mission, known as UNIFIL, has a maritime force that monitors the coast. “Disinformation and false rumors are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk,” Ardiel said. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is sending bomber aircraft, fighter jets and more Navy warships to the Middle East to bolster the U.S. presence in the region, the Pentagon announced Friday, as an aircraft carrier and its ships are preparing to leave. Austin ordered several B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft,a squadron of fighter jets, tanker aircraft and Navy destroyers to deploy to the Middle East, said Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, in a statement. He said they will begin arriving in the region in coming months, as the USS Abraham Lincoln begins to head home. The military moves come as Israel’s wars with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon rage, including a retaliatory strike on Iran a week ago that likely damaged a base that builds ballistic missiles and launches rockets as part of Tehran’s space program. The U.S. is pressing for cease-fires, while repeatedly saying it will defend Israel and continue to protect the American and allied presence in the region, including from Yemen-based Houthi attacks against ships in the Red Sea. Austin’s latest order, said Ryder, shows the “U.S. capability to deploy world-wide on short notice to meet evolving national security threats.” He said Austin “continues to make clear that should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people.” The long-range nuclear-capable B-52 bomber has been repeatedly deployed to the Middle East in pointed warnings to Iran and it is the second time this month that strategic U.S. bombers will be used to bolster U.S. defenses in the region. In October, B-2 stealth bombers were used to strike underground Houthi targets in Yemen. Ryder did not provide the specific number of aircraft and ships that will move into the region. The shifts are likely to result in an overall decrease in the total number of U.S. troops in the Middle East, largely because an aircraft carrier contains as many as 5,000 sailors. But the addition of bomber aircraft beefs up U.S. combat strength. There have been as many as 43,000 U.S. forces in the region recently. According to U.S. officials, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and the three Navy destroyers in its strike group are scheduled to leave the Middle East by mid-month and return to their home port in San Diego. When it departs, there will be no aircraft carrier in the Middle East for a period of time, officials said. U.S. They declined to say how long that gap would last. Military commanders have long argued that the presence of an aircraft carrier strike group, with its array of fighters jets, surveillance aircraft and heavily armed warships, is a significant deterrent, including against Iran. To make up for that gap, Austin is ordering the deployment of other Navy destroyers to the region. Those destroyers, which are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, would come either from the Indo-Pacific region or Europe, the official said. Eventually, it is expected that the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its three warships will move to the Mediterranean Sea, but they won’t get there before the Lincoln departs. The Truman strike group has been in the North Sea, participating in a NATO military exercise. The […]
