US Media: Pentagon Considers Deploying 3,000 Paratroopers to Support Operations Against Iran

According to The New York Times on the 23rd, the Pentagon is considering deploying a combat brigade of about 3,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to support military operations against Iran, potentially to seize Iran’s oil export hub, Hormuz Island.

Pentagon officials said this unit would come from the “Immediate Response Force” under the 82nd Airborne Division, capable of deploying anywhere in the world within 18 hours.

The report, citing U.S. officials, said the U.S. military is also considering another plan to seize Hormuz Island, led by approximately 2,500 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit en route to the Middle East. After the initial attack on the island, a combat brigade from the 82nd Airborne could be used to replace and rotate.

The report stated that the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command have not yet issued any orders regarding the island seizure.

According to U.S. media outlets including ABC on the 20th, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, including the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, and about 2,200 Marines have departed from San Diego, California, and are expected to arrive in the Middle East in at least three weeks. A few days earlier, the Pentagon dispatched the U.S. amphibious assault ship USS LPD “Librador” from Japan to transport the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to the Middle East, expected to arrive later this week.

Hormuz Island is located in the northwest of the Persian Gulf, about 25 kilometers from the Iranian coast. It is approximately 6 kilometers long and 3 kilometers wide, and is Iran’s largest oil export hub, with 90% of Iran’s oil exported from here. The U.S. military conducted strikes on the island’s military targets on the 13th.

(Source: Xinhua News Agency)