INTERNATIONAL DESK — The US military has denied an Israeli media report that it is preparing for a possible resumption of operations against Iran, dismissing claims of changes to its regional force posture as “pure speculation.“ Responding to Anadolu, a US Central Command (CENTCOM) official said there were no updates to the US force posture in the Middle East. The denial followed a report by the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, which cited a US official as saying that CENTCOM had urged Israel to prepare for a possible resumption of military operations against Iran in the near future.
The warning was reportedly conveyed to Israeli military representatives in the United States. KAN also reported that Washington was sending similar messages to Gulf countries through security channels. The report further claimed that the US had deployed around 200 aerial refuelling aircraft across the Middle East and Europe, with two aircraft carriers -- the USS George Washington and USS George H.W.
Bush -- already in the region and a third, the USS Roosevelt, expected to arrive in the Arabian Sea next week. Iran's Guards say they targeted a US early-warning radar in Bahrain Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Friday they targeted a US early-warning radar in Bahrain, the first such claim of an attack on American military assets in a Gulf country since early September. The Guards said the strike was in retaliation for what they described as an air attack on a telecommunications tower in Iran's southern Sirik county, in Hormozgan province, according to Iranian state media.