NEW YORK, March 31. /TASS/. The US is sending the USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier to the Middle East, which will create an unprecedented deployment of three American aircraft carriers in the region simultaneously, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials.

According to the newspaper, the aircraft carrier departed from the Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia on Tuesday and will join the strike group already deployed in the region: the USS Abraham Lincoln, operating in the Arabian Sea, and the USS Gerald R. Ford, currently undergoing repairs in a Croatian port.

This redeployment of forces comes as US President Donald Trump considers further military options against Iran. Last weekend, amphibious ships carrying an expeditionary Marine Corps unit entered Middle Eastern waters.

The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.