PARIS: The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran – potentially including raids on Kharg Island and coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz – though US President Donald Trump has yet to approve any deployment, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
Any ground operation would stop short of a full-scale invasion, instead involving raids by special operations forces and conventional infantry troops, the Post said, citing unnamed officials.
The US Central Command said on Saturday that 3,500 servicemen aboard the USS Tripoli have arrived in the region, in addition to transport and strike fighter aircraft, as well as amphibious assault and tactical assets.
Washington has dispatched thousands of Marines to the Middle East in the month-old war.
Reuters has reported the Pentagon was considering military operations that could include deploying ground troops in Iran.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday the US could achieve its aims without ground troops but that it was deploying some to the region so Trump would have “maximum” flexibility to adjust strategy.
The Pentagon was also expected to deploy thousands of soldiers from the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.
The deployment would come atop of some 5,000 Marines who are being shifted to the Middle East. Those forces are over and above the 50,000 US forces already in the region, AP reported.
The surge of Marines and soldiers has fed speculation that Trump is, at the very least, positioning troops to conduct limited ground strikes to secure the banks of the strait or capture Kharg Island, a critical part of Iran’s oil industry.
Defense experts say US ground forces could certainly capture Kharg and help secure the strait, but the cost could be a war of attrition in which American lives and taxpayer money present a hefty price.
However, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday that the US was plotting a ground attack despite publicly engaging in diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the war.
“The enemy publicly sends messages of negotiation and dialogue while secretly planning a ground attack,” Ghalibaf said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.
– with Reuters and AP
