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WASHINGTON (AP) – A group of US aircraft carriers returned to the Gulf region, but a Navy spokeswoman said Saturday that their return was not triggered by any “threats” after the assassination in Iran of a top nuclear scientist.
Tensions in the region are extraordinarily high after the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on Friday, an act still unclaimed but one that Iran has blamed on close US ally Israel.
But Naval Commander Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the US Fifth Fleet, told AFP that the return on Wednesday of the nuclear-powered carrier group led by the USS Nimitz had no relation to any “specific threat.”
“There were no specific threats that triggered the return of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group,” it said in a statement.
“Nimitz’s return is focused on maintaining CENTCOM’s ability to stay in position and ready to help preserve regional stability and security,” Rebarich said, referring to the US Central Command.
The Pentagon previously said that the carrier group would provide combat support and air cover as the military withdraws thousands of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan in mid-January, under orders from President Donald Trump.
Approximately 2,000 soldiers will be withdrawn from Afghanistan and 500 from Iraq, leaving approximately 2,500 in each country.
The flotilla led by the Nimitz, one of the world’s largest warships, had recently joined Australia, India and Japan in scheduled exercises in the Arabian Sea.
The Fifth Fleet’s Twitter account showed images of the Nimitz air wing conducting flight operations there on Saturday.
Carrier groups typically include a cruiser, a destroyer squad, and an air wing.
Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are over 300 meters long, have a crew of over 6,000, and carry up to 90 helicopters and planes.
