Trump Approves Sending More Forces to the Middle East Amid Tensions with Iran by Paul Sonne and Missy Ryan – Washington Post
The United States will deploy about 1,500 troops to the Middle East, President Trump said Friday, in his administration’s latest step to address what it says are increased threats from Iran.
“We’re going to be sending a relatively small number of troops, mostly protective, and some very talented people are going to the Middle East right now, and we’ll see what happens,” he said outside the White House. “It’ll be about 1,500 people.”
Acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan said he had approved a request by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military activities in the Middle East, to deploy a Patriot missile battalion, intelligence and surveillance aircraft, a squadron of fighter planes, and engineering capabilities. Shanahan said the measures would help safeguard U.S. forces given an ongoing threat posed by Iran and its proxies…