CAIRO, Sept 20 (Agencies): The US has kept an increased military presence in the Middle East throughout much of the past year, with about 40,000 forces, at least a dozen warships and four Air Force fighter jet squadrons spread across the region both to protect allies and to serve as a deterrent against attacks, several U.S. officials said.
As attacks between Israel and Hezbollah sharply spiked this week, worries are growing that the conflict could escalate into an all-out war, even as Tel Aviv keeps up its nearly yearlong fight against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Hezbollah says Israel crossed a "red line" with explosive attacks on its communications devices and vowed to keep up the missile strikes it's launched since fellow Iranian-backed militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, setting off the war in Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant - who has spoken repeatedly this week to US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin - has declared the start of a "new phase" of the war, shifting its focus to the northern front against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
So far, the US hasn't signaled a troop increase or change as a result of the latest attacks, and there is already a beefed-up force in the region.
"We're confident in the ability that we have there right now to protect our forces and should we need to come to the defense of Israel as well," Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Thursday.
A military official said the additional resources have helped as the U.S. patrols various conflict areas, including operations targeting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, defending Israel and countering threats from Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea and launched ballistic missiles at Israel.
Normally, about 34,000 U.S. forces are deployed to US Central Command, which covers the entire Middle East. That troop level grew in the early months of the Israel-Hamas war to about 40,000 as additional ships and aircraft were sent in.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians in tank and air strikes on north and central areas of the Gaza Strip on Friday, medics said, as tanks advanced further into northwest Rafah near the border with Egypt.
The unrelenting fighting between the Israelis and Hamas militants in the enclave carried on even as a parallel conflict in the Lebanon-Israel border area involving Hamas' allies Hezbollah intensified.
Israeli public broadcaster says
150 rockets fired from Lebanon
Israeli public broadcaster Kan said on Friday around 150 rockets were fired from Lebanon across the border.
Israeli ambulance service said there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Lebanon's Hezbollah announced on Friday they launched seven separate attacks on Israeli targets with Katyusha rockets.
Hack of Hezbollah devices exposes
dark corners of Asia supply chains
The lethal hack of Hezbollah's Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices' path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers may have few assurances about what they are getting.
While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that's not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say.
Gaza ceasefire deal unlikely
in Biden's term, WSJ reports
US officials now believe that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza is unlikely before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
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