The United States Navy is investigating what caused significant damage to one of its oil tankers on Tuesday after refueling warships positioned in the Middle East.
According to the Navy, the USNS Big Horn experienced an unspecified emergency early Tuesday local time. The tanker was damaged after it resupplied the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, which is patrolling in the Arabian Sea.
The vessel was reportedly carrying around 80 people and the Navy said that everyone on board was safe.
Two military officials told The Washington Post that the vessel was being towed to port for evaluation and repair. One of the officials said that the ship was damaged close to the waterline and that at least one of the compartments had begun flooding.
The Pentagon has bolstered its military presence in the region over the past year, including at sea, to protect Israel, an important American ally, as well as U.S. interests and commercial shipping lanes.
While Jerusalem has been fighting against the Hamas terror group in Gaza for nearly a year, its conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon has escalated in recent weeks.
On Monday, the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its strike group, including two destroyers and a cruiser, departed from Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. They left U.S. shores on a regularly scheduled rotation and are expected to be assigned to the 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy in European Mediterranean waters.
Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, said this week that the Truman deployment “highlighted the need for continuity in our sustained presence amid escalating international tensions,” as quoted by the Navy Times.
Also on Monday, the Pentagon announced the deployment of additional troops to the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, would not provide any details to the Associated Press about how many additional forces Washington would send or what their mission would be, the wire reported.
“In light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional U.S. military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region,” Ryder told the AP. “For operational security reasons, I’m not going to comment on or provide specifics.”
The United States currently has some 40,000 troops in the region, according to the Pentagon.
