WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has kept an increased military presence in the Middle East throughout much of the past year, with about 40,000 forces, at least a dozen warships and four Air Force fighter jet squadrons spread across the region both to protect allies and to serve as a deterrent against attacks, several U.S. officials said.
As attacks between Israel and Hezbollah sharply spiked this week, worries are growing that the conflict could escalate into an all-out war, even as Tel Aviv keeps up its nearly yearlong fight against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Hezbollah says Israel crossed a “red line” with explosive attacks on its communications devices and vowed to keep up the missile strikes it’s launched since fellow Iranian-backed militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, setting off the war in Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — who has spoken repeatedly this week to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — has declared the start of a “new phase” of the war, shifting its focus to the northern front against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
So far, the U.S. hasn't signaled a troop increase or change as a result of the latest attacks, and there is already a beefed-up force in the region.
“We’re confident in the ability that we have there right now to protect our forces and should we need to come to the defense of Israel as well," Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Thursday.
A military official said the additional resources have helped as the U.S. patrols various conflict areas, including operations targeting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, defending Israel and countering threats from Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea and launched ballistic missiles at Israel.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe U.S. troop movements and locations.
Here’s a look at the U.S. military presence in the Middle East:
Normally, about 34,000 U.S. forces are deployed to U.S. Central Command, which covers the entire Middle East. That troop level grew in the early months of the Israel-Hamas war to about 40,000 as additional ships and aircraft were sent in.
Several weeks ago, the total spiked to nearly 50,000 when Austin ordered two aircraft carriers and their accompanying warships to stay in the region as tensions roiled between Israel and Lebanon. One carrier strike group has since left and moved into the Asia-Pacific.
The beefed-up presence is designed both to help defend Israel and protect U.S. and allied personnel and assets.
Navy warships are scattered across the region, from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Oman, and both Air Force and Navy fighter jets are strategically based at several locations to be better prepared to respond to any attacks.
The U.S. is back to one aircraft carrier in the region. Austin has extended the deployment of carriers several times in the past year so that on a few occasions, there has been the rare presence of two at once.
American military commanders have long argued that the presence of a formidable aircraft carrier — with its array of fighter jets and surveillance aircraft and sophisticated missiles — is a strong deterrent against Iran.
The USS Abraham Lincoln and its three destroyers are in the Gulf of Oman, while two U.S. Navy destroyers are in the Red Sea. The USS Georgia guided missile submarine, which Austin ordered to the region last month, had been in the Red Sea and remains in U.S. Central Command, but officials declined to say where.
There are six U.S. warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard. And three Navy destroyers are in that area.
About a half dozen of the F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Abraham Lincoln have been moved to a land base in the region. Officials declined to say where.
The Air Force sent in an additional squadron of advanced F-22 fighter jets last month, bringing the total number of land-based fighter squadrons in the Middle East to four.
That force also includes a squadron of A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft, F-15E Strike Eagles and F-16 fighter jets. The Air Force is not identifying what countries the planes are operating from.
The addition of the F-22 fighter jets gives U.S. forces a hard-to-detect aircraft that has a sophisticated suite of sensors to suppress enemy air defenses and carry out electronic attacks. The F-22 also can act as a “quarterback,” organizing other warplanes in an operation.
But the U.S. also showed in February that it doesn’t have to have planes based in the Middle East to attack targets. In February, a pair of B-1 bombers took off from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas and flew more than 30 hours in a roundtrip mission in which they struck 85 Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force targets in Iraq and Syria in response to an attack by IRGC-backed militias that killed three U.S. service members.
FILE - The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Laboon sails in the Red Sea, June 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)
FILE - The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Laboon sails in the Red Sea, June 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)
FILE -Crew members work in the combat information center of the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Laboon during a deployment in the Red Sea, June 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)
FILE - An HSC-7 helicopter lands on the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Laboon in the Red Sea, June 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Two emergency medical technicians stood around for minutes, providing no medical aid to a seriously injured Tyre Nichols who was slumped on the ground after being kicked and punched by five Memphis police officers, according to video shown Thursday at the trial of three of the officers charged in the fatal beating.
The video from officers’ body-worn cameras shows EMTs Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge standing and walking near Nichols while he sits then rolls onto his left side on the ground.
After about five minutes, the EMTs approach Nichols. Long says: “Hey man. Hey. Talk to me.” Nichols does not respond.
Other video seen by jurors Thursday shows Nichols finally getting medical care when paramedic Jesse Guy and his partner arrived at the scene.
Former officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith are charged with acting with “deliberate indifference” while Nichols was on the ground, struggling with his injuries. An indictment says the former officers “willfully” disregarded Nichols’ medical needs by failing to give him medical care, and not telling a police dispatcher and emergency medical personnel that Nichols had been hit repeatedly. They are also charged with using excessive force and witness tampering. They have pleaded not guilty.
Video shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggles with his injuries. Smith’s defense attorney played the video in an effort to show the fire department personnel also failed to help.
Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department policies in Nichols' death but they have not been criminally charged.
Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during a traffic stop, but ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then beat him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother.
Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. An autopsy report shows Nichols — the father of a boy who is now 7 — died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.
Guy testified Wednesday that Long and Sandridge did not say if they had checked Nichols’ pulse and heart rate, and they did not report if they had given him oxygen. When asked by one of Bean’s lawyers whether that information would have been helpful in treating Nichols, Guy said yes.
In the ambulance, Guy performed CPR and provided mechanical ventilation. A neurologist who treated Nichols testified Thursday that Nichols' pulse returned about five minutes after he arrived in the hospital emergency room. A hospital nurse has testified that Nichols had no heartbeat and was not breathing for about 25 minutes.
The police officers were members of the Memphis Police Department's Scorpion Unit, which looked for drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders. It was disbanded after Nichols’ death. The department fired the three officers, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., and all five were indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals.
Prosecutors have said the officers used unnecessary force to punish Nichols for running away from them after he was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop. In her opening statement, prosecutor Elizabeth Rogers referred to the punishment as a “run tax.”
Former Scorpion Unit member Kyle Coudriet testified Thursday that he had seen his teammates use violence and punishment during previous arrests, including one in which Haley and Martin punched a man suspected of pointing a gun at another officer and posting about it online.
Coudriet said he was “ashamed” that he was unable to stop his teammates from hitting that suspect. He was not present when his colleagues beat Nichols. Coudriet has since left the Memphis Police Department for a job with the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
Coudriet said Haley and Martin had the nickname, Smash Bros., because they were “overly aggressive.” He said Bean was just a “quiet dude.”
Under cross examination by Smith’s lawyer Martin Zummach, Coudriet acknowledged lying to the FBI during interviews about his work with the Scorpion Unit.
The Associated Press analyzed what the officers claimed happened on the night of the beating compared to video of the incident. The AP sifted through hundreds of pages of evidence and hours of video from the scene, including officer body cameras.
The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date in state court has not been set.
FILE - This combo of images provided by the Memphis, Tenn., Police Department shows, top row from left, officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, and bottom row from left, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith. (Memphis Police Department via AP, File)
FILE - The screen at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans honors Tyre Nichols before an NBA basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Washington Wizards, Jan. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)
Former Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley arrives at the federal courthouse for the second day of jury selection for the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Former Memphis police officer Tadarrius Bean arrives at the federal courthouse for the second day of jury selection for the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Former Memphis police officer Justin Smith leaves the federal courthouse after the first day of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
FILE - The image from video released on Jan. 27, 2023, by the City of Memphis, shows Tyre Nichols during a brutal attack by five Memphis police officers on Jan. 7, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn. (City of Memphis via AP, File)
Jurors watch video of EMTs failing to treat Tyre Nichols after he was beaten
Jurors watch video of EMTs failing to treat Tyre Nichols after he was beaten
