Washington protects Israel by sending ship-based jets to West Asia base: US Official

The United States tries to protect Israel against Iran’s potential retaliatory strikes by dispatching several ship-based navy fighter jets to a base in West Asia, a US official says.

The Islamic Republic has vowed to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Roughly a dozen F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier flew to the base, an unnamed US official told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

The official also said the move was aimed at safeguarding US troops deployed in the region against such possible attacks.

“The F/A-18s and an E-2D Hawkeye surveillance aircraft took off from the carrier in the Gulf of Oman and arrived at the undisclosed base on Monday,” the official said.

When Haniyeh was assassinated at his residence in the early hours of July 31, Iran declared three days of national mourning, and vowed to launch a massive retaliatory attack on the occupying entity.

In a statement, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) warned Israel of a harsh and stinging response in coordination with the forces of the Axis of Resistance.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has already ordered the increased military presence in the region as officials express worries about escalating regional tensions in the wake of the assassination.

Israelis ‘sitting in fear’ as Iran vows to launch retaliatory attack: Israeli mayor

“Nine million citizens are sitting in fear ... waiting to see what will happen,” Avichai Stern, the mayor of Kiryat Shmona, said.

According to the official, the navy jets’ land-based deployment is expected to be temporary, because a squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets is heading toward the same base from their home station in Alaska.

The dispatched F-22s are expected to arrive in the region in the coming days, the official added.

On Tuesday, Secretary General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that Western countries’ aid to Israel indicates that the occupying regime is incapable of defending itself and is fearful of Iran and the Resistance’s response to recent string of assassinations.

He made the comments to commemorate top-ranking Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr, who was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in the suburbs of southern Beirut last week.

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