US deploys 3,000 troops to Red Sea to deter Iran from seizing tankers

More than 3,000 US troops have arrived in the Red Sea aboard two warships to deter Iran from seizing tankers, the US Navy announced on Monday (August 7th). Embarked on USS ships Bataan and USS Carter Hallthese soldiers “add significant flexibility and operational capability as we work (…) to deter destabilizing activities and defuse regional tensions caused by Iran’s harassment and seizures of merchant ships”told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the spokesperson for the 5^e U.S. Fleet Commander Tim Hawkins.

The United States announced in July the deployment of a warship and F-35 and F-16 fighter planes. Last week, a US official told AFP that Washington was preparing to deploy troops to commercial tankers transiting the Gulf, hoping to deter Iran from seizing those ships.

According to the US military, Iran has seized or attempted to seize nearly 20 internationally flagged vessels in the region over the past two years. The US Navy had notably announced, at the beginning of July, to have opposed the seizure by Iran of two oil tankers in international waters off the coast of Oman. Tehran had however managed to seize a merchant ship in the waters of the Gulf.

The Iranian army had also seized at the end of April in the Gulf of Oman a tanker flying the flag of the Marshall Islands bound for the United States, before seizing a week later a tanker flying the flag of Panama which was sailing in the Strait of Hormuz.