A brigade of about 3,000 US paratroopers could join the conflict in the Middle East, the newspaper has reported
Senior US military officials are considering the possibility of deploying air troops to capture Kharg Island, which is responsible for 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports, The New York Times reported, citing US defense sources.
The US attacked military targets on the island, located about 25 kilometers (15 mi) off the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf, in mid-March, but refrained from attacking energy infrastructure. Reports have since been circulating claiming Washington could launch a ground campaign to take control of the key oil hub in an effort to cripple Tehran’s economy three weeks after the start of the US-Israeli war with the Islamic republic.
Iran has been warning that it will set up oil and gas facilities in the Gulf countries “On fire” If action is taken against Kharg Island. On Monday, it also threatened to retaliate by mining the Strait of Hormuz and all other waterways in the region.
The plan under consideration at the Pentagon is to send about 3,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne “Immediate Reaction Force,” It is capable of being deployed anywhere in the world within 18 hours to carry out an attack on the island, the NYT said in an article on Monday.
It said another option being discussed was using 2,500 troops from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is already en route to the Middle East for the operation.
Current and former officials told the newspaper that there is also a scenario where paratroopers could augment the Marines. He pointed out that despite being able to arrive quickly, the airborne troops do not have the heavy equipment the Marines would need to thwart potential Iranian attempts to retake Kharg Island.
The NYT’s sources said the attack on the oil hub was merely tactical planning, stressing that no order to carry it out had yet been given by the Pentagon or US Central Command.
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Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned from his post last week in protest of the US-Israeli war on Iran, told The Washington Post on Monday that the US operation on Kharg Island “There will be a disaster” and just the amount “Giving Iran a bunch of hostages on an island where they can attack with drones and missiles.”
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