Pentagon sending a ‘few thousand’ personnel to Middle East day after Biden said he wouldn’t add combat troops

The Pentagon announced on Monday that it is sending a ‘few thousand’ U.S. personnel to the Middle East to support Air Force squadrons a day after President Biden vowed not to send combat troops to the region. 

Speaking at a press gaggle with reporters on Monday, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the U.S. was sending a ‘few thousand’ more troops to the Middle East to bolster security and to defend Israel, if needed.

Biden gave a firm ‘no’ when asked Sunday if he planned to deploy additional combat troops to the Middle East.

This increased presence is to include multiple warplane squadrons, complimenting the F-15s, F-16s, A-10s and F-22s already stationed in the region. 

The planes were initially supposed to rotate in and replace the squadrons stationed there. Instead, both the current and new squadrons are to remain in place to double the available airpower because of increased tensions in the region and concern that Iran might respond to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s leader last week in Lebanon.

Singh said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ‘increased the readiness of additional U.S. forces to deploy, elevating our preparedness to respond to various contingencies. And DOD (Department of Defense) maintains robust and integrated air-defense capabilities across the Middle East, ensuring the protection of U.S. forces operating in the region.’

The few thousand additional personnel are not combat troops but rather maintenance crews and those who can help with the air defense mission and refueling. The additional forces would raise the total number of U.S. personnel in the region to as many as 43,000.

The Pentagon’s announcement follows word that Israel has already launched limited raids across its northern border into Lebanon amid an anticipated wider ground invasion.

It also follows recent Israeli strikes into Lebanon and the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a significant escalation in the war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist organization and proxy of Iran. Israel is also engaged in an ongoing war in the south against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian terrorist group sparked the conflict with its bloody incursion into southern Israel in October 2023.

Austin announced Sunday he was temporarily extending the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and its embarked air wing in the region. A U.S. official said the extension would be for about a month. 

A second U.S. carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman, sailed from Virginia last week and is en route to Europe. It will head to the Mediterranean Sea and again provide a two-carrier presence in the broader region. It’s not expected to arrive for at least another week.

Biden told reporters on Monday, ‘I’m more aware than you might know’ about reports that Israel is planning a limited ground campaign in Lebanon after nearly a year of trading attacks with Hezbollah in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, and he said he wants an immediate cease-fire.

When asked about the reports, Biden said he was ‘comfortable with them stopping’ and that ‘We should have a cease-fire now.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.