The United States is sending a third aircraft carrier and additional Marine forces to the U.S. Central Command area of operations, an American source told i24NEWS on Thursday.
The source did not say which carrier would make up the third, or when the reinforcements would arrive. The Pentagon has not commented.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt left San Diego on September 27 for a Middle East deployment expected to last more than seven months. Navy officials and defense media have described the move as a rotation, with the Roosevelt set to relieve the Japan-based USS George Washington, which has operated in the region since mid-August. The USS George H.W. Bush is the other carrier now in the region.
A three-carrier presence would therefore mean the George Washington remains in the Middle East after the Roosevelt arrives, rather than returning to the western Pacific. The United States last kept three carriers in the region in April, the largest such concentration since the 2003 Iraq War.
Two Marine Expeditionary Units, each with about 2,200 Marines, have been assigned to the Iran war since March.
The report comes as U.S.-Iran talks have stalled. Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered Iran's UN delegation out of New York earlier this week, and President Donald Trump told TIME that increased bombing after the midterms is possible.
