Tensions with Iran: US B-52 bombers fly over Middle East
The United States military said on Monday, US army flew a pair of nuclear-capable B-52 long-distance bombers over the Middle East in a show of force amid tensions with Iran.
The bombers took off from the Royal Air Force base at Fairford, England, and flew over the eastern Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea on Sunday in training missions together with Kuwaiti and Saudi warplanes, before departing the region.
“Threats to the US and our partners will not go unanswered”, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the top US Air Force officer in the Middle East said in a statement adding that missions like this … showcase our ability to combine forces to deter and, if necessary, defeat our adversaries.
Although the US military’s Central Command did not mention Iran in its statement, Washington has frequently dispatched B-52 bombers to the region as hostilities simmered between the US and Iran while the last such flyover was in June.
Tensions with Iran: US B-52 bombers fly over Middle East
Ex-USA President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from Tehran’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers sparked a series of escalating incidents in the region.
Even as diplomats wrangle over a possible revival of the nuclear accord, Iran’s navy seized two American sea drones in the Red Sea last week, the capture came just days after the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard towed another sea drone before releasing it as an American warship trailed it.
Iran’s regional foe, Israel, also joined in the multinational mission. Though unacknowledged by the U.S., three Israeli F-16 fighter jets accompanied the American bombers “through Israel’s skies on their way to the (Persian) Gulf,” the Israeli military said, describing the country’s cooperation with the U.S. military as key to “maintaining aerial security in Israel and the Middle East.”
