New York (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 14 Mar 2026) About 2,500 US Marines aboard as many as three warships are heading to… middle East in the Indo-Pacific region, amid escalating Iranian military operations in the Strait of Hormuz, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed US officials.
The shift, previously reported by The Wall Street Journal, comes as Iran’s response to nearly two weeks of deadly U.S. and Israeli aerial bombardment and long-range artillery strikes has proven more resilient than Trump administration officials expected.
The Marines will join more than 50,000 US soldiers in the region. The new deployment comes as Iranian attacks on and near the strait have choked maritime traffic through the essential waterway, shaking the global economy. The newspaper said that it is not clear how the new deployment will be used.
The Strait of Hormuz is a strategically important waterway connecting the Arabian Gulf to the northern Arabian Sea.
Iran’s southern coast extends along the strait, and Iranian authorities routinely interrogate military and civilian ships passing through it via maritime radio communications when entering and exiting the Gulf.
He pointed out that about a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait via large oil tankers operated by civilians. The cessation of tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz due to security concerns since the United States and Israel struck Iran on February 28 has contributed to a global rise in oil prices. Prices And rising gas prices for consumers in the United States.
Last week, President Trump said he might order Navy warships to escort commercial ships through a vital oil supply route, something U.S. forces did for a period of time in the late 1980s during similar tensions with Iran.
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