The Pentagon is gearing up for ground operations in Iran which could last several weeks officials revealed, as thousands of US Marines pour into the Middle East.
Defense chiefs are bracing for what insiders describe as a ‘major escalation,’ though any military action is expected to stop short of an all-out invasion, sources told The Washington Post.
It comes as the USS Tripoli arrived in the region on Friday, bringing an additional 3,500 sailors and Marines.
On board was the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group and elements from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit who are based in Japan. They were conducting exercises in the area around Taiwan when they were ordered to the Middle East almost two weeks ago.
The unit’s main tasks typically include intercepting vessels and seizing territory, according to the Wall Street Journal.
US Central Command said that in addition to the Marines, the Tripoli also brings transport and strike fighter aircraft, as well as amphibious assault assets to the region.
The USS Boxer and two other ships, along with another Marine Expeditionary Unit, have also been ordered to the region from San Diego.
The deployment coincides with the entry of the Iranian-backed Houthis into the conflict after they launched an unsuccessful missile attack on Israel.
It comes as the president mulls whether to send an additional 10,000 troops to the Middle East to give Washington more military options.
The Trump administration has insisted that the war is drawing closer to an end and that it is seeking peace talks with Tehran, while leaving the possibility of further force on the table.
On Friday, Trump declared: ‘It’s sort of finished, but it’s not finished. It’s got to be finished.’
Meanwhile, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt warned on Tuesday that if the regime in Tehran did not bring its threats and nuclear ambitions to an end, the President is ‘prepared to unleash hell.’
Leavitt added in a statement to the Post: ‘It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the Commander in Chief maximum optionality. It does not mean the President has made a decision.’
The timeline of the operation between the Post’s sources ranged from ‘weeks, not months’ to ‘a couple of months.’
The Pentagon told the Daily Mail that it had nothing to offer on the matter. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘We’ve looked at this. It’s been war-gamed,’ they said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at a meeting in France where US allies met to discuss the economic toll that the war is having, said on Friday that the war is not projected ‘to be a prolonged conflict.’
He added that the operation is ahead of schedule based on the administration’s assessment and said that the US ‘can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops,’ the outlet reported.
Meanwhile, some 10,000 troops were being prepared for deployment from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, adding to the thousands of marines aboard Navy ships already on their way to the region, sources close to the Pentagon told AP on Tuesday.
The conflict has already seen the deaths of at least 13 US soldiers, including six involved in a plane crash in Iraq and six in a drone attack on Port Shuaiba.
A dozen US soldiers were wounded and multiple planes damaged following an Iranian missile strike at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on Friday.
US and Arab officials confirmed that one missile and several unmanned aerial vehicles struck on Friday, resulting in twelve US soldiers being wounded.
Two were ‘very seriously injured’ and at least two KC-135 refueling planes suffered ‘significant damage.’
The strike represents one of the most serious breaches of US air defenses since the monthlong war with Iran began, as well as at least the second hit on Prince Sultan Air Base.
An earlier March 1 strike on the base damaged five US refueling aircraft and claimed the life of 26-year-old Army Sgt Benjamin N Pennington just days after he was wounded.
Over 300 US troops have been wounded in the ongoing conflict, including about 225 with traumatic brain injuries from missile blasts, the US Central Command announced on Friday.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf powers are now signaling a tougher stance against Iran’s attacks, hinting that continued strikes may draw them deeper into the war.
Meanwhile, the US and its allied forces are continuing to see their supply of air defense interceptors shrink after just four weeks.
The president declared that Saudi Arabia and Israel should move to normalize relations after the Iran conflict wraps up.
‘It’s now time,’ Trump said. ‘We’ve now taken them out, and they are out bigly. ‘We got to get into the Abraham Accords.’
Trump has been urging Israel and Saudi Arabia, the two biggest powers in the Middle East, to normalize ties for years as part of his Abraham Accords initiative.
However challenges remain, including Saudi Arabia’s insistence on a credible path to a Palestinian state before establishing commercial and diplomatic ties with Israel.
Meanwhile, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, said Tehran has agreed to ‘facilitate and expedite’ humanitarian aid through the Strait of Hormuz, even as its nuclear sites are being struck.
He said Tehran has agreed to a UN request to allow both humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the critical waterway that carries a fifth of the world’s oil and nearly a third of global fertilizer trade.
The aid plan would be the first breakthrough at the shipping chokepoint after a month of war.
However, Iran‘s proxy group in Yemen issued its warning after launching a missile attack on ‘sensitive’ Israeli military sites, marking a significant escalation to the month-long war.