U.S. Central Command ‘loudly’ announced yesterday that a pair of B-52 bombers, flying from Minot, North Dakota, made a round trip flight to the Persian Gulf yesterday for the third time in a month, in what was an obvious warning to Iran. “The two-ship deployment also delivers a clear deterrent message to anyone who intends to do harm to Americans or American interests,” the statement said.
An unnamed senior military officer told The Associated Press that the flight was deployed in response to signals that Iran may be planning attacks against U.S. allied targets in neighboring Iraq or elsewhere in the region in coming days, in the run-up to January 20.
CNN, however, reports that defense officials are divided over the Iranian threat. This is indicated by acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller’s decision, made yesterday, to let the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz return home, disregarding a request from Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of Central Command, to extend its stay in the region (the Nimitz has been supporting the pullout of U.S. troops from Somalia for the past week or ten days or so), “sending it out of the region in an explicit de-escalation signal to Iran.”
The CNN report then goes through a confusing roundabout over whether the threat said to be emanating from Iran is real or not. One unnamed official said that the threat from Iran is being exaggerated, telling CNN that there is “not a single piece of corroborating intel” suggesting an attack by Iran may be imminent. On the other side are three other unnamed sources saying the opposite, including one citing meetings between Shi’ite militia leaders in Iraq and elements of the IRGC Quds Force as “proof” that the militias are planning “complex attacks” on US troops that they could not carry out without IRGC support.
