US flies fourth B-52 bomber mission to Middle East this year, amid tensions with Iran
WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – On Sunday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced another B-52 flight from the continental US to the Middle East.
It was the fourth time this year—in less than three months—that the “Stratofortress” bombers have flown non-stop to the Persian Gulf in a show of force directed at Iran.
Two of the previous flights occurred while US President Donald Trump was in office: Jan. 6 and Jan. 17. The other two flights occurred under President Joe Biden: Sunday’s flight, as well as one on Jan. 27.
The US had long placed Israel under its European Command (EUCOM), out of deference to Arab sensibilities. However, the recent normalization of ties between Israel and some Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, appears to have changed the political calculations, and in January, in the last days of the Trump administration, Israel was moved from EUCOM to CENTCOM.
READ MORE: Israel signs accords with UAE, Bahrain
Thus, CENTCOM’s announcement of Sunday’s flight included the statement that “multiple partner nations” had escorted the bombers, as they flew over their airspace, “including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.”
The statement marked the first time that CENTCOM mentioned Israel in such an announcement, and may have been particularly apt, as concern about Iran was a significant factor in the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain.
Increased Regional Tensions
The latest B-52 flight occurred against a background of rising tensions between the US and Iran, as well as US regional allies and Iran.
On Feb. 26, the US bombed a compound on an Iranian base in Syria, close to the border with Iraq, that was used by Iranian-backed Iraqi militias to transfer men and materiel between Iraq and Syria.
READ MORE: US strike destroyed eleven facilities at Abu Kamal
The US strike was in response to a series of rocket attacks against facilities used by Coalition forces in Iraq or hosting US personnel there, starting with the Feb. 15 assault on Erbil International Airport.
In its strike, the US timed the attack to keep Iraqi militia casualties light, as The Wall Street Journal explained last week.
“They were timed, in the middle of the night, to minimize any casualties,” the Journal said. “Pentagon officials later said one militia member was killed and two injured.”
Nonetheless, the following week, on March 3, a rocket attack struck Al-Asad Airbase, in Iraq’s western Anbar province.
The only previous such assault on the base had been a year before, in March 2020, Col. Wayne Marotto, Spokesman for the US-led Coalition against ISIS, told Kurdistan 24. An American civilian contractor died of a heart attack in the course of the March 3 attack.
US officials have, so far, declined to identify those responsible for the latest assault, saying that they are waiting for the results of the investigation, as they did following the earlier attacks.
Saudi-Iranian Tensions
The Biden administration has made bringing a negotiated end to Yemen’s devastating civil war a top priority. At its core, that conflict is a struggle between the Iranian-backed Houthis, who are Shi’ites and who now control most of the country, and the internationally recognized government, backed by Saudi Arabia.
The most immediate consequence of the US diplomacy has been an intensification of the conflict, as each side seeks to improve its position, ahead of negotiations.
In particular, the Houthis have launched an offensive to capture Yemen’s oil-rich Marib province, the last area of the country still under government control.
On Sunday, the Houthis claimed to have hit two Aramco oil targets in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern province with ballistic missiles and drones. Riyadh confirmed the attack, saying that missile shrapnel had fallen in the area. However, it also stated that the assault was intercepted, with the missiles and drones brought down, before striking their targets.
The Houthi attack, which the Saudis called an assault on “security and stability of energy supplies to the world” caused a brief spike in oil prices, before it became clear that damage had been minimal.
Israeli-Iranian Tensions
Sunday’s flight of the US bombers also occurred against a backdrop of increased tensions between Israel and Iran, involving a bomb planted outside Israel’s embassy in India; an attack on an Israeli vessel in the Gulf of Oman; and Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
India’s counter-terrorism agencies have concluded that a bomb that exploded outside Israel’s embassy in Delhi on Jan. 29 was the work of Iran’s Quds Force and had been “planted by a local Indian Shi’a module,” The Hindustan Times reported on Sunday.
“Deliberate false-flag cyber markers were left by the perpetrators, pointing to the role of the Islamic State,” the Indian paper said. “But the counterterror agencies are clear that the blast was part of the asymmetric warfare campaign being carried out by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps against Israel.”
The issue of the mining of an Israeli cargo ship on Feb. 26 also arose on Sunday, when a Lebanese television station broadcast grainy footage of the attack on the Helios Ray. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for the assault, although the US did not support his claim.
READ MORE: US declines to back Israel on charge of Iranian ship sabotage
Finally, as the US has sought to renew discussions with Iran over the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Tehran has, since Feb. 23, significantly reduced its cooperation with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA.)
READ MORE: US supports IAEA compromise on Iran nuclear inspections
On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, warned in an interview with Fox News, that Israel was updating its targeting plans against Iran’s nuclear program. "If the world stops them before, it's very much good,” Gantz said. “But if not, we must stand independently and we must defend ourselves by ourselves.”
Underscoring its significance, Fox News explained that the discussion was Gantz’s first sit-down interview with US media.
The Iranian Defense Minister, Amir Hatami, responded on Sunday, Israel “must know that if it does a damn thing, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground,” while asserting Iran’s power to respond through “resistance groups.”
Hatami may well have been alluding to the many Iranian-supplied rockets in the arsenal of Lebanese Hizbollah, which Israel regards as a serious threat.
Editing by Khrush Najari