End of Middle East war seems further than ever as Pentagon prepares ground operations, Iran increases attacks

The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, US officials said, as thousands of American soldiers and marines arrived in the Middle East for what could become a dangerous new phase of the war should President Donald Trump choose to escalate.

Any potential ground operation would fall short of a full-scale invasion and could instead involve raids by a mixture of Special Operations forces and conventional infantry troops, said the officials.

All spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly sensitive military plans that have been in development for weeks.

Such a mission could expose US personnel to an array of threats, including Iranian drones and missiles, ground fire and improvised explosives.

It was unclear on Saturday whether Mr Trump would approve all, some or none of the Pentagon’s plans.

It is clear that invasion plans are well under way — on Saturday US Central Command confirmed an amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli had arrived in the region.

It leads a unit of 3500 sailors and marines and carries transport and strike fighter aircraft.

The Trump administration has in recent days vacillated between declaring that the war is winding down and threatening to amplify it.

While the President has signalled a desire to negotiate an end to the conflict, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned that if the regime in Tehran does not end its nuclear ambitions and cease its threats against the US and its allies, Mr Trump is “prepared to unleash hell” against them.

When asked about the mass movement of troops, Ms Leavitt tried to play down the potential for an invasion.

“It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the Commander-in-Chief maximum optionality,” she said.

“It does not mean the President has made a decision.”

Discussions within the administration over the past month have touched upon the possible seizure of Kharg Island, a key Iranian oil export hub in the Persian Gulf, and raids into other coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz to find and destroy weapons that can target commercial and military shipping, officials said.

One person said that the objectives under consideration would probably take “weeks, not months” to complete.

Another put the potential timeline at “a couple of months”.

The Pentagon did not respond on Sunday to requests for comment.

Mr Trump, speaking on March 20 in the Oval Office, told reporters: “I’m not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you, but I’m not putting troops.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in France on Friday after a gathering of US allies anxious about the war’s mounting economic toll, told reporters that it is “not going to be a prolonged conflict”.

He repeated a frequent, if vague, administration assessment that the operation is ahead of schedule, and said the US “can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops”.

Mr Rubio’s comments followed a report from news website Axios indicating that the Pentagon is preparing a “final blow” against Iran that could include both ground forces and a massive bombing campaign.

Axios and the Wall Street Journal also reported in recent days that the administration is considering deploying another 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East, supplementing those already in the region.

The prospect of deploying troops on Iranian soil faces significant opposition among Americans, according to recent polls which show 62 per cent strongly oppose the use of ground troops in Iran, with just 12 per cent in favour.

Any mission to take Kharg Island carries significant dangers said Michael Eisenstadt, director of the Military and Security Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

It may be safer, he said, for US forces to lay mines around the island and use it as a pressure point to compel Iran to remove any mines it has laid in the Strait of Hormuz.

“I just wouldn’t want to be in that small place with Iran’s ability to rain down drones and maybe artillery,” said Mr Eisenstadt, a retired army officer who served in Iraq, Israel and Jordan.

A smarter ground mission, he said, may be for US troops to “clear out” some of Iran’s coastal military sites that pose a threat to commercial and military shipping.

Some are near the Strait of Hormuz and others are likely further up the coast, he said.

“I think it’s better to not have the troops located in any given place for a prolonged period of time,” Mr Eisenstadt said.

“Agility is part of your force protection, if they are moving and doing raids, in and out.”

The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, made up of about 2200 US sailors and marines, was ordered to the region in recent weeks.

It has significant capability to conduct such missions but faces logistical limitations in how long it can fight without additional supplies, said a retired senior military officer familiar with the unit’s operations.

Kharg Island is Iran’s most significant territory in the Persian Gulf, the retired officer said, but US military officials have studied other Iranian islands closer to the Strait of Hormuz as potential sites for US operations.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is likely to dig in and fight, the retired officer said, and those fighters could use Kharg Island’s valuable oil infrastructure there as part of their defence against US forces.

Another former senior Defence official familiar with the US military’s plans for a ground campaign in Iran said they are extensive.

“We’ve looked at this. It’s been war-gamed,” the official said. “This is not last-minute planning.”

Regional powers were due to meet in Pakistan on Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East.

Pakistan said Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt were sending top diplomats to Islamabad for talks.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had held “extensive discussions” on regional hostilities.

The United States and Israel continue to strike Iran, whose retaliatory attacks have targeted Israel and neighbouring Gulf Arab states. More than 3000 people have already been killed.

Among the latest fatalities were three journalists killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV said its longtime correspondent Ali Shoeib was among the dead. Israel’s military said it had targeted Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative.

Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said reporter Fatima Ftouni was killed in the same air strike in the southern district of Jezzine along with her brother Mohammed, a video journalist. She had just been on air with a live report before the strike.

Top officials in Lebanon condemned the strike, with President Joseph Aoun calling it a “flagrant crime that violates all laws and agreements that protect journalists”.

Hezbollah launched about 250 projectiles from Lebanon in the during Saturday and Sunday, according to an Israeli military official.

The military said early on Sunday that an Israeli soldier had been killed while three others were wounded in combat in southern Lebanon. He was identified as Sgt Moshe Yitzchak Hacohen Katz, originally from Connecticut in the US.

This brings the total to five Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah reignited on March 2.

Israel again came under attack from Iran and radar was damaged at Kuwait International Airport. In Bahrain, two workers were hurt when the world’s biggest aluminium smelter was hit. Aluminium Bahrain said the smelter sustained significant damage.

Interceptions and drone activity were heard for hours in the early on Sunday across Irbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, including drones shot down while attempting to target the US consulate and nearby bases.

Journalists in the area reported nonstop loud explosions and saw at least one drone headed towards American facilities, in one of the most intense days of attacks since the war began.