New US forces for Middle East may aid evacuation

26/9/2024 6:11

        The new U.S. deployment
        of a small number of troops to the Middle East announced earlier
        this week could help the U.S. military prepare for scenarios
        including an evacuation of Americans from Lebanon, two U.S.
        officials told Reuters.
        
        Officials say the move is precautionary and comes as
        President Joe Biden warns of the risk of all-out war and as
        Israel openly talks about a possible ground incursion into
        southern Lebanon.
        
        While Washington has urged U.S. citizens to leave Lebanon,
        the U.S. State Department has not ordered an evacuation of U.S.
        personnel from Lebanon nor requested any assistance so far from
        the U.S. military to evacuate Americans from the country, U.S.
        officials say.
        
        But close U.S. ally Britain announced on Wednesday it was
        moving troops to Cyprus in position to help evacuate nationals
        trapped in Lebanon.
        
        The additional U.S. forces deploying to the Middle East are
        also headed to Cyprus, the officials say, and number in the
        dozens.
        
        At the time of the Pentagon announcement, the U.S. Defense
        Department declined to offer a number of forces deploying or to
        specify their mission.
        
        Israel's military chief told troops on Wednesday that
        airstrikes in Lebanon would continue in order to destroy
        Hezbollah infrastructure and to prepare the way for a possible
        ground operation by Israeli forces.
        
        Israeli airstrikes this week have targeted Hezbollah leaders
        and hit hundreds of sites deep inside Lebanon, where hundreds of
        thousands have fled the border region, while the group has fired
        barrages of rockets into Israel.
        
        Biden's administration has been seeking to contain the
        conflict to Gaza and has repeatedly called for the
        Israel-Lebanon border crisis to be resolved through diplomacy.
        That call for diplomacy has been underscored by U.S. Defense
        Secretary Lloyd Austin in his calls with Israeli Defense
        Minister Yoav Gallant.
        
        Experts question whether Iran would stay on the sidelines if
        the existence of Lebanon's Hezbollah were threatened, and say
        U.S. troops could also find themselves targeted throughout the
        Middle East if a regional war breaks out.