US deployed 14,000 troops to Middle East to address Iranian threats: Esper

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday that his country has deployed about 14,000 troops to the Middle East to confront Iran’s growing influence in the region.  

“Iran continue its malign influence and widespread destabilizing activities across the Middle East,” Esper said during an onstage discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, citing Iranian support to its proxies in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq, and shutting down of US drone attacks on shipments in the Strait of Hormuz. 

“To address these threats, since May this year, nearly 14,000 US military personnel have been deployed to the region to further enhance deterrence and demonstrate our commitment to our allies and partners,” he added. 

Believing that Iran could be behind a series of attacks on its military bases in Iraq, several US officials told CNN last week that the US is increasingly concerned about new provocations against their troops in the region. 

A number of defense sources told the news agency that may deploy 4,000-7,000 additional troops to the area.

Esper’s comments follow rocket attacks on a military base near Baghdad airport, which houses US troops, on Wednesday. The tenth of its kind since late October, the attack was blamed on the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic.

Two days earlier, several members of the Iraqi counter-terrorism units, trained by the US, were wounded near the same airport in an overnight attack. 

“We strongly condemn the Iranian proxy attack that wounded five Iraqi soldiers near the Baghdad Airport this week. To Iran’s leaders - the U.S. will respond decisively if Iran or its proxies harm U.S. personnel or our Iraqi partners,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted on Friday.

Kataib Hezbollah, which is part of Hashd al-Shaabi and is blacklisted by the US, was blamed by security sources for the attacks.  

Iran provides military, financial and political support to a number of militant groups overseas including Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and various Palestinian groups.

It's wide involvement in regional affairs is deemed to be a core component of Iranian defense strategy.

A report published by the US Defense Intelligence Agency last month described Tehran as leading an "Axis of Resistance" against the West, made up of state and non-state Shiite and Alawite actors, and labelled Iran as "implacably opposed" to the US presence in the Middle East.

Aramco oil facilities in Saudi Arabia were repeatedly attacked in September, with Iranian-linked Houthi rebels claiming responsibility for the offensive. Despite popular speculation,  the United Nations said Tuesday that they were unable to verify that Iran was behind the attack.

Following the US withdrawal from northern Syria in early October, which attracted widespread condemnation, 3,000 troops were sent to Saudi Arabia as a “defense tactic” against Iran. 

The US announced fresh sanctions on Iran on Wednesday,  targeting an Iranian shipping network and three agents of an Iranian airline company. 

"The Iranian regime uses its aviation and shipping industries to supply its regional terrorist and militant groups with weapons, directly contributing to the devastating humanitarian crises in Syria and Yemen," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement.