The Pentagon promises to help defend Israel.

[Pelican Press 0]

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The Pentagon promises to help defend *******.

******* was bracing for retaliatory attacks from Iran and its proxies in the aftermath of a top ****** leader’s ************** as additional ********* combat aircraft and missile-********* warships were being dispatched to the region.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered the movements Friday to come to *******’s defense in the event of an *******, and to prepare for the possibility that Iran-backed groups might target ********* forces in the region as part of the expected retribution. Some ********* warships already in the Mediterranean will move closer to the coast of *******, according to a senior Pentagon official.

The ******** of the ****** leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in an ********** at a military-run guesthouse in Tehran on Wednesday, was a stunning breach of security in the Iranian capital. Iran arrested more than two dozen people, including senior intelligence officers, in response. The country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order for Iran to strike ******* directly for the ********, according to Iranian officials.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of ******* said on Thursday that his country was preparing for any retaliatory attacks, saying ******* is “in very high readiness for any scenario — both defensively and offensively.” ******* has neither denied nor taken responsibility for the ****** leader’s **************.

At Mr. Haniyeh’s burial on Friday in Qatar, where he was running the Gaza-based militant group’s political arm from exile, his likely successors pledged to continue ******’s ******.

The Pentagon did not specify when the additional warplanes and combat vessels would arrive in the Middle East, but officials said on Friday it would be a matter of days for the additional aircraft and somewhat longer for naval reinforcements.

Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, said that during a telephone call Mr. Austin held with his ******** counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Friday morning, Mr. Austin “committed” that the ******* States would help ******* in its defense. “We will be bolstering our force protection in the region,” she said.

The Pentagon is also bracing for the possibility that Iran-backed groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, might target ********* troops in the region as part of the expected Iranian retaliation for the ******** of Mr. Haniyeh.

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