Middle East crisis looks set to explode into all out war as America threatens retaliation for rocket blast that hit soldiers in Iraq – as military scrambles destroyers and fighter jets to Israel

US defense officials are beginning to make plans to make the Middle East crisis worse after a rocket attack injured several soldiers at a military base in Iraq on Monday.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Monday night that the United States is sending additional fighter jets, aircraft carriers, cruisers with ballistic missile defenses and destroyers to the region as Israel awaits retaliation from Iran for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

“These deployment adjustments complement the broad range of capabilities the U.S. military maintains in the region, including the USS Wasp Amphibious Readiness Group/Marine Expeditionary Force operating in the Eastern Mediterranean,” a Defense Department spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris held a general meeting in the situation room to discuss a response to the attack on the Ain al-Assad base.

The base in the west of the country was targeted by two Russian-made Katyusha missiles amid rising tensions in the Middle East, with Iran threatening to attack Israel on Monday night.

Biden and Harris were told by NatSec officials that it was still unclear when Iran’s retaliatory strike would take place, Axios reported.

Officials told the president and vice president that there could be two waves of attacks, one from Hezbollah and one from Iran.

However, the intelligence service did not know exactly who would attack first and what form it would take. It was called a ‘work in progress’.

‘[Biden and Harris] “We discussed the steps we will take to defend our troops and respond to an attack on our personnel in a manner and place of our choosing,” the White House said in a statement.

Israel Katz, Israel’s Foreign Minister, has said he has heard from a reliable source that Iran is planning to attack the Jewish state, the New York Post.

The murder of Haniyeh came a day after an Israeli attack in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander of the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

The rocket attack on the US base is the latest in a series of attacks on the base in western Iraq, which houses both US troops and personnel from the US-led coalition fighting the jihadist group Islamic State.

The Ministry of Defense also confirmed the seriousness of the attack.

“There was a suspected rocket attack on U.S. and coalition forces” at the base today, a U.S. Department of Defense spokesman said. “Initial indications are that multiple U.S. personnel were injured.”

“Base personnel are conducting a damage assessment following the attack” and updates will be provided as more information becomes available, the spokesperson said.

An Iraqi military source had said earlier that several rockets had been fired at the base. Some of the rockets landed on the base and another hit a nearby village but caused no damage.

A commander of a pro-Iranian armed group told AFP at least two rockets were aimed at the base, without saying who carried out the attack.

Another source in the group and a security source confirmed that an attack had taken place.

Such attacks occurred frequently early in the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza, but have largely stopped since then.

The latest missile attack comes amid growing fears of an attack by Iran and its allies on Israel in retaliation for the killing of top Hamas and Hezbollah figures in attacks last week blamed on or claimed by Israel.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria regularly attack US bases during times of heightened tension.

Joe Biden is scheduled to meet with his national security team in the Situation Room today as the president tries to defuse simmering tensions between Israel and Iran after the Jewish state assassinated Hamas leaders in Tehran and Beirut, Lebanon, last week.

The Islamic Republic could attack Israel within 24 to 48 hours after a major attack by Hezbollah that wounded two IDF soldiers, top Western diplomats have warned.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the G7 yesterday that an attack was imminent in response to Israel’s killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, Axios reported.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III reportedly spoke with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Sunday to assure the Jewish state of American support.

It would be the second time Iran has directly attacked Israel during the growing Middle East crisis. The first was in April, when the country fired a salvo of missiles and drones overnight.

Iran has made it clear that it intends to attack its enemy, claiming it has the “legal right” to respond to Haniyeh’s killing. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told a news conference: “No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime.”

The leader of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami, also threatened Israel, warning that the state was “digging its own grave” by continuing its war against the Hamas terror group.

“They will see the result of their mistake. They will see when, how and where they will get their response,” Salami said in a speech.

The threat from Iran came just hours after Hezbollah, backed by the Iranian regime, fired a silo containing 30 rockets from Lebanon toward the Upper Galilee.

Rising tensions between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran have led to growing fears of an all-out war in the Middle East between Israel and Tehran’s allies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was already engaged in a “multi-front war” with Iran, adding during a cabinet meeting on Sunday that Israel was prepared for any scenario.

Netanyahu is also accused of not being “genuinely interested in a ceasefire,” as Hamas’ Haniyeh was the terror group’s lead negotiator on the ceasefire.

The US said during the G7 meeting on Sunday that it decided to increase its military capacity in the region to strengthen its defense.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also captured 251 hostages, 111 of whom remain in Gaza. The army says 39 are dead.

At least 39,583 people have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli retaliation, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health. The ministry did not provide details on the number of civilians and militants killed.