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Pentagon Weighing Deployment of ~3,000 82nd Airborne Paratroopers for Possible Iran Operations

U.S. military planners are actively considering sending approximately 3,000 paratroopers from the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division (Fort Liberty, North Carolina) into Iran as part of contingency planning for the ongoing U.S.-Israel campaign, according to The New York Times.The troops in question belong to the division’s Immediate Response Force (IRF) — a brigade-sized unit capable of deploying anywhere in the world within 18 hours. Officials are also looking at attaching roughly 300 personnel from the division’s headquarters staff.The primary scenario under discussion: using these forces to help seize or secure Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal that handles about 90% of the country’s oil shipments. The island is seen as a critical target in efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has partially blocked.