DAMASCUS - The United States (US) decided to extend the operational schedule for the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush and his battle group.
The decision came after its base in northeastern Syria was attacked by a drone that killed an American contractor last week. The decision means the George H.W. Bush and the more than 5,000 US troops, now in the European Command's operational area, will not return to their home ports in the United States on schedule.
Quoting a Reuters report, Saturday (1/4/2023), US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino has confirmed the extension of the carrier group's mission schedule.
“The extension of the George H.W Bush Carrier Strike Group, including [battleships] USS Leyte Gulf, USS Delbert D. Black, and USNS Arctic, allows options to potentially enhance CENTCOM's capabilities to respond to a wide range of contingency in the Middle East," Buccino said in a statement.
a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the carrier strike group was expected to remain within the European Command's area of responsibility.
The report on the carrier mission's extended mission schedule came a day after the Pentagon doubled its tally of American troops injured in last week's attack on Syria to 12. The addition follows the diagnosis of six US military personnel with traumatic brain injury.
The drone strike, which the US claims came from Iran, also killed an American contractor and injured another.
President Joe Biden warned Iran last week that the United States would act decisively to protect Americans.
The Pentagon estimates eight militiamen were killed in US airstrikes on two Iranian-linked facilities in Syria during the exchange of fire sparked by the March 23 first attack on a US base near the Syrian city of Hasakah.
The White House said earlier this week that the offensive would not precipitate a US withdrawal from a nearly eight-year-old US deployment in Syria, where American troops and local Kurdish-led partners are fighting remnants of Islamic State militias.
However, the United States officially prioritizes Russia, Ukraine and Asia-Pacific in its national security policy over the Middle East after two decades of US intervention in the region during its global war on terrorism.
That has led to an overall reduction in US military personnel and assets in the Middle East.