The United States will deploy about 1,500 troops to the Middle East, President Trump said Friday, in his administration’s latest step to address what it says are increased threats from Iran. “We’re going to be sending a relatively small number of troops, mostly protective, and some very talented people are going to the Middle East right now, and we’ll see what happens,” he said outside the White House. Shanahan said the measures would help safeguard U.S. forces given an ongoing threat posed by Iran and its proxies. The decision was made after a meeting late Thursday at the White House between Trump and top Pentagon leaders. Kathryn Wheelbarger, acting assistant defense secretary for international security affairs, said the additional forces would be going not to Iraq or Syria but to other U.S. positions in the Middle East that she declined to disclose.

Source: Washington Post May 24, 2019 14:49 UTC