�WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st January, 2021) The only US aircraft carrier deployed in the middle East has returned home despite heightened tensions with Iran, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
"Following its role in providing support to American troops in Somalia and the arrival of follow-on operational capability, Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller has directed that the USS Nimitz will transit directly home to complete a nearly 10-month deployment," the Department of Defense said in a statement.
The move that reduces US firepower in the region comes notwithstanding intelligence assessments that Iran may be plotting an attack on American targets in Iraq.
Tensions are high in the region ahead of the first anniversary of the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike outside Baghdad last January 3.
