USS Truman airborne strike group in place opposite Syria

In position off the Syrian coast is the nuclear-powered USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier – from which the US, UK and France launched their April 14 attack on the Syrian army for launching a chemical attack. The US Navy strike group entered the eastern Mediterranean over last weekend. US task force commander Rear Adm. Eugene Black announced that its arrival “sends a powerful signal to our partners that we are committed to maintaining peace and security in the region and everywhere that there is a threat of terrorism.”


DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the strike group is sending an even more powerful signal to US adversaries: The Trump administration looks with extreme disfavor on the mounting cooperation between Russian, Iranian, Syrian and Hizballah military forces and their aggressive intent, especially with respect to the US outpost at Al Tanf which controls the point of intersection between the Syrian, Iraqi and Jordanian borders. The US is in general opposed to any military action against the Syrian opposition forces it supports, whether in the north, east or south, or along Syria’s borders with Iraq, Jordan and Israel.



The coming DEBKA Weekly issue out on Friday, June 15, offers exclusive details on the critical military movements afoot in Syria and examines their ramifications in the light of a comment President Donald Trump made on June 12 in Singapore, after his epic sit-down with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. He referred obliquely to changes overtaking the Iranian leadership in the last three months. What did he mean?