Backed by a strike group with more than 6,500 sailors and marines as well as additional minesweeping ships, the Stennis joins the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in line with President BushÂ’s orders for the build-up as a show of strength to Iran.
Top US Navy commander in the Middle East Vice Adm. Patrick Walsh said Iran had brought its war games over the past year into the busy shipping lanes in the Straits of Hormuz, through which two-fifths of the worldÂ’s oil supplies pass.
The moves have alarmed US officials about possible accidental confrontations that could boil over into war. During maneuvers, Iranian sailors have loaded mines onto small mine-laying boats and test-fired a Shahab-3 missile into international waters, said the US vice admiral, very close to the straits. |