WASHINGTON DC: The U.S. moved deeper into the Middle East conflict, announcing that it is sending an advanced missile defense system to Israel and about 100 American troops to operate it, the first time U.S. forces have been deployed in Israel since the Hamas-led attacks a year ago.
President Joe Biden ordered Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to send the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, and its crew to Israel, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.
The missile system is a ground-based interceptor designed to defend against ballistic missiles.
Its deployment comes after Iran launched more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 after an Israeli attack on Beirut killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, with Israel now planning a retaliatory attack on Tehran.
When asked about the decision Sunday, Biden said only that he had ordered the Pentagon to deploy the system “to defend Israel.” He declined to answer follow-up questions.
The U.S. is already Israel’s biggest arms supplier and Ryder said in his statement that the battery would “augment Israel’s integrated air defense system.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said Israel will hit Iran in a way that will be “lethal, precise and surprising,” but the timing and scope of an Israeli attack is not known.
Meanwhile, Iran said Sunday that it has “no red lines” in defending itself, as the Middle East anxiously awaits Israel’s expected response to Tehran’s missile attacks two weeks ago.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X, formerly Twitter, “While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests.”
His comments appeared intended to dispel suggestions that Iran would absorb an Israeli strike without a further response, as Tehran did earlier this year when Israel last struck Iran after a volley of Iranian missiles.
The THAAD system is used to shoot down ballistic missiles. It does not have any warheads and is not used to conduct offensive attacks.
Each THAAD truck-mounted battery carries up to eight missiles each. Israel has other antimissile defenses, including its Iron Dome system.
Meanwhile, on the war front, a Hezbollah drone attack in a northern Israeli town injured at least 67 people, authorities said Sunday evening.
The Lebanon-based group said in a statement that it launched a “swarm” of explosive-laden drones on a training camp for Israel’s Golani Brigade, an elite infantry unit, in Binyamina, seriously injuring at least nine people.
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