The Pentagon announced it would send the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery and its crew as Israel considered retaliatory attacks against Iran.
Listen to this article · 2:29 min Learn more
- Share full article
A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in Guam in 2023.
The United States is sending an advanced missile defense system to Israel, and will deploy about 100 American troops to operate it, the Pentagon announced on Sunday.
President Biden directed Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, and its crew, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement on Sunday.
The move will put American troops closer to the widening war in the Middle East and comes after Iran launched about 200 missiles, including ballistic missiles, at Israel on Oct. 1 and as Israel plans its retaliatory attack.
When asked on Sunday, Mr. Biden said only that he had ordered the Pentagon to deploy the system “to defend Israel. General Ryder said in his statement that the battery would “augment Israel’s integrated air defense system.” It was not immediately clear how quickly the missile defense system and troops announced on Sunday would arrive in Israel.
“This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran,” the statement said. “It is part of the broader adjustments the U.S. military has made in recent months to support the defense of Israel and protect Americans from attacks by Iran and Iranian-aligned militias.”
The Pentagon said late last month that it would send a “few thousand” American troops to the region as Israel intensified its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, with one official putting the figure between 2,000 and 3,000. The United States also sent a THAAD battery along with other air defense systems to the region weeks after the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
On Saturday Mr. Austin spoke with Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, and “expressed his deep concern about reports that Israeli forces fired on U.N. peacekeeping positions in Lebanon as well as by the reported death of two Lebanese soldiers,” the Pentagon said in a statement about the call.
On Sunday morning, the Israeli military said that its jets had hit around 200 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past day.
Helene Cooper is a Pentagon correspondent. She was previously an editor, diplomatic correspondent and White House correspondent. More about Helene Cooper
See more on: Israel-Hamas War News, Defense Budget, Lloyd Austin, Yoav Gallant
- Share full article
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Source: nytimes.com
