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“No specific threats have caused the return of the Nimitz air and naval group,” said Captain Rebecca Rebarich, spokesman for the 5th Fleet covering the Middle East.
The Pentagon recently deployed the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf to compensate for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, a military source reported on Saturday, denying that this strategy was due to threats following the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist.
“No specific threats have caused the return of the Nimitz air and naval group,” said Captain Rebecca Rebarich, spokesman for the 5th Fleet covering the Middle East.
Therefore, the presence of the aircraft carrier is unrelated to Friday’s murder of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a senior Iranian scientist working in the nuclear industry, he said.
Rebarich specified that the “Nimitz returned (to the area of the) 5th fleet on 25 November”.
The carrier had crossed the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic passage Iran regularly threatens to block, in September before heading to the Pacific.
In a separate statement, the Pentagon linked this deployment to the “reduction in the number of US military personnel deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan,” announced on November 18 by the new interim defense secretary, Christopher Miller.
About 2,000 troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by January 15 and another 500 will leave Iraq, leaving only 2,500 troops in each country.
“The US Department of Defense will maintain the safety of its forces by continuing to protect Americans and our interests abroad,” the Pentagon said.
During this transition, “the department has considered it prudent to have additional defense capabilities in the region to respond to any eventuality,” he added.
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