3,000 US Navy troops arrive in Middle East to deter Iran’s seizure of international merchant ships

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The United States Navy has deployed the assault ship USS Bataan and over 3,000 sailors and Marines to the Red Sea in the Middle East in an effort to deter Iran from “harassing and seizing” international merchant ships traveling through the Suez Canal, The Hill reports. The USS Bataan arrived Sunday after sailing from the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal.

Over the last four years Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has seized several ships in the Persian Gulf in order to pressure the West in negotiations over the collapsed 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Iran nuclear deal, The Hill noted.

In a statement the US Naval Central Forces Central Command said the USS Bataan and dock landing ship USS Carter Hall were deployed to bring “additional aviation and naval assets, as well as more U.S. Marines and Sailors, providing greater flexibility and maritime capability to the U.S. 5th Fleet,” The Hill reports.

The Naval Central Command said the USS Bataan can carry rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft and “several ambitious landing craft,” The Hill reports. The dock landing ship will be used in operations for multiple rotary-wing aircraft, tactical vehicles and amphibious landing craft.

Following the deployment of USS Bataan, the US Fifth Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Tim Hawkins Central Command told The Hill: “These units add significant operational flexibility and capability as we work alongside international partners to deter destabilizing activity and deescalate regional tensions caused by Iran’s harassment and seizures of merchant vessels earlier this year.”

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