The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain has been reduced to “mission critical” staffing ahead of potential U.S. strikes on Iran, multiple U.S. officials told Fox News.
There are now fewer than 100 personnel remaining at the facility, the officials said. A separate U.S. official disputed the other officials, saying there has been no ordered departure yet for American personnel or their dependents in Bahrain.
Ahead of Operation Midnight Hammer last June, when the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear sites, the 5th Fleet headquarters was evacuated in a similar manner.
The U.S. has been surging military assets to the Middle East in recent weeks as discussions have been ongoing between the U.S. and Iran over the future of Tehran’s nuclear program.
U.S. Central Command said this week that sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln — one of the ships in the region — have regularly been performing maintenance to “keep aircraft mission-ready.”
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“Their experience and skills allow Abraham Lincoln to sustain continuous airpower and conduct over 100 sorties per day,” CENTCOM said on X.
President Donald Trump warned in his State of the Union address earlier this week that Iran has “sinister ambitions” with its nuclear program and that the U.S. has not yet heard from Tehran that it will “never have a nuclear weapon.”
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“After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program and, in particular, nuclear weapons. Yet they continue starting it all over. We wiped it out, and they want to start all over again and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions,” Trump said Tuesday, referencing the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last summer.
“We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon,’” Trump added. “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let that happen.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.