{"id":44349,"date":"2026-03-19T09:13:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T03:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=44349"},"modified":"2026-03-19T09:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T03:28:06","slug":"us-weighs-military-reinforcements-as-iran-war-enters-possible-new-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/us-weighs-military-reinforcements-as-iran-war-enters-possible-new-phase\/","title":{"rendered":"US weighs military reinforcements as Iran war enters possible new phase"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reuters :\u00a0<\/strong>President Donald Trump\u2019s administration is considering deploying thousands of U.S. troops to reinforce its \u200boperation in West Asia, as the U.S. military prepares for possible next steps in its campaign against Iran, said a U.S. official and three people familiar with the \u200cmatter.<\/p>\n

The deployments could help provide Mr. Trump with additional options as he weighs expanding U.S. operations, with the Iran war well \u200binto its third week.<\/p>\n

Those options include securing safe passage for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a mission that would \u2060be accomplished primarily through air and naval forces, the sources said. But securing the Strait could also mean deploying U.S. troops to Iran\u2019s shoreline, said four sources, including two U.S. officials.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has also discussed options to send ground forces to Iran\u2019s Kharg Island, the hub for 90% \u200cof Iran\u2019s oil exports, the three people familiar with the matter and three U.S. officials said. One of the officials said such an operation would be very risky. Iran has the ability to reach the island with missiles and drones.<\/p>\n

The United States carried out \u200cstrikes against military targets on the island on March 13 and Trump has threatened to also strike its critical oil infrastructure. However, given its vital \u200crole \u2060in Iran\u2019s economy, controlling the island would likely be viewed as a better option than destroying it, military experts say.<\/p>\n

Any use \u2060of U.S. ground troops – even for a limited mission – could pose significant political risks for Mr. Trump, given low support among the American public for the Iran campaign and Mr. Trump\u2019s own campaign promises to avoid entangling the U.S. in new West Asia conflicts.<\/p>\n

Trump administration officials have also discussed the possibility of deploying U.S. forces to secure Iran\u2019s stocks of highly enriched uranium, one of the \u200bpeople familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n

The sources did not believe a \u200cdeployment of ground forces anywhere in Iran was imminent but declined to discuss specifics of U.S. operational planning. Experts say the task of securing Iran\u2019s uranium stockpiles would be highly complex and risky, even for U.S. special operations forces.<\/p>\n

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: \u201cThere has been no decision to send ground troops at this time, but President Trump wisely keeps all options at his disposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president is focused on \u200cachieving all of the defined objectives of Operation Epic Fury: destroy Iran\u2019s ballistic missile capacity, annihilate their navy, ensure their terrorist proxies cannot destabilize \u200bthe region, and guarantee that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pentagon declined to comment.\u00a0The discussions come as the U.S. military continues to attack Iran\u2019s navy, its missile and drone stockpiles and its defense industry.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has carried out \u2060more than 7,800 strikes since launching the war on February 28 and damaged or destroyed more than 120 Iranian vessels so far, according to a factsheet released on Wednesday by the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the roughly 50,000 U.S. troops in the West Asia.<\/p>\n

U.S. casualties<\/strong>
\nMr. Trump has said his goals go beyond degrading \u200cIran\u2019s military capabilities and could include securing safe passage through the Strait and preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

Ground forces could help broaden his options to address those goals, but carry significant risk. Even without any direct conflict in Iran, 13 U.S. troops have been killed so far in the war and about 200 have been wounded, although the vast majority of the injuries have been minor, the U.S. military says.<\/p>\n

For years, Mr. Trump has railed against his predecessors for getting involved in conflicts and has vowed to keep the United States out of foreign wars. But more recently he has refused to rule out the possibility of \u201cboots on the ground\u201d in Iran.<\/p>\n

A senior White House official told Reuters that Trump has various options for acquiring Iran\u2019s nuclear material \u200cbut has not decided how to proceed. \u201cCertainly there are ways in which it could be acquired,\u201d the official said, adding: \u201cHe hasn\u2019t made a decision yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

In written testimony to lawmakers on Wednesday (March 18, 2026), \u200bDirector of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Iran\u2019s nuclear enrichment program had been obliterated by strikes in June and the entrances to those underground facilities had been \u201cburied and shuttered with cement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sources said the discussions on U.S. reinforcements go beyond the arrival of an \u2060Amphibious Ready Group next week in the West Asia, with an attached Marine Expeditionary Unit that includes more than 2,000 Marines.<\/p>\n

But one of the sources noted \u2060that the U.S. military was losing a significant number of forces with the decision to send the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier to Greece for maintenance after a fire on board the vessel.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump has also oscillated on whether the U.S. should secure the Strait of \u200cHormuz.<\/p>\n

After initially saying the U.S. Navy could escort vessels, he called on other countries to help open the key water way. With little interest from allies, Trump on Wednesday mused about simply leaving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wonder what would happen if we \u2018finished off\u2019 what\u2019s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let \u200bthe Countries that use it, we don\u2019t, be responsible for the so called \u2018Strait?,\u2019\u201d Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reuters :\u00a0President Donald Trump\u2019s administration is considering deploying thousands of U.S. troops to reinforce its \u200boperation in West Asia, as the U.S. military prepares for possible next steps in its campaign against Iran, said a U.S. official and three people familiar with the \u200cmatter. The deployments could help provide Mr. Trump with additional options as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44351,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44349\/revisions\/44351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}