US bombers fly near Iran in response to hijacked sea drones

As tensions between Washington and Tehran remain high, the US military said on Monday that it had flown two nuclear-capable B-52 long-range US bombers over the Middle East as a show of force.

The Iranian navy last week intercepted two American sea drones in the Red Sea as diplomats haggled over the possibility of the nuclear agreement being revived.

That capture occurred only a few days after the nation’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a paramilitary organization, dragged another maritime drone before releasing it as an American vessel followed it. To monitor threats in the vital waterways, which have recently experienced a number of marine strikes, the US Navy has begun using ultra-endurance aerial surveillance drones.

On Sunday, the US bombers performed training sorties over the eastern Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Red Sea with Kuwaiti and Saudi jets before taking off from the Royal Air Force station in Fairford, England.

After recent clashes in the area between US soldiers and militias with Iranian support, tensions are still high. The IRGC-backed militias in eastern Syria retaliated last month after Washington carried out airstrikes there that were directed at those regions.

Threats against the United States and our allies will not be ignored. The senior US Air Force officer in the Middle East, Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich, made a statement. Missions like these demonstrate our capacity to work together to thwart and, if necessary, defeat our enemies.

Although Iran was not mentioned by the US Central Command in its statement, Washington often sent B-52 US bombers to the area as tensions between the US and Iran lingered. Such a flyover hadn’t occurred since June.

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