The USS Eisenhower Strike Group transited the Suez Canal from the
Persian Gulf Saturday, Dec. 1, sailing up to the Syrian coast Tuesday in a heavy
storm, with 8 fighter bomber squadrons of Air Wing Seven on its decks and 8,000
sailors, airmen and Marines.
The USS Eisenhower group joins the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group which carries 2,500 Marines.
The USS Eisenhower group joins the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group which carries 2,500 Marines.
Four of these vessels are armed with Aegis missile interceptors.
This mighty US armada brings immense pressure to bear on the beleaguered Assad regime after it survied an almost two-year buffeting by an armed uprising. Its presence indicates that the United States now stands ready for direct military intervention in the Syrian conflict when the weather permits.
Left behind in the Persian Gulf is just one US aircraft carrier, the USS Stennis and its strike group.
Welcoming NATO’s decision Tuesday, Dec. 4, to deploy Patriot missile
batteries in Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday: “The
protection from NATO will be three dimensional; one is the short-range Patriots,
the second is the middle-range Terminal High Altitude Air Defense [THAD] system
and the last is the AEGIS system, which counters missiles that can reach outside
the atmosphere.”
debkafile’s military sources: While the Patriot is land-based and will be deployed on the Turkish-Syrian border, the THAD and the Aegis have just reached the Syrian coast aboard the USS Eisenhower strike group.
“With this integrated system,” said Davutoglu, Turkey will have maximum protection.”
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