Will America attack Iran soon ?

 

 The Pentagon is sending more than 2,000 Marines and several U.S. Navy ships to the Middle East in response to increasingly aggressive Iranian actions in the region, U.S. Central Command announced Thursday. An unnamed Amphibious Ready Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit will join a guided missile destroyer and F-35 and F-16 fighter jets dispatched on Monday to the waters near Oman.

The buildup comes two weeks after the U.S. Navy said one of its guided-missile destroyers stopped the Iranian navy from seizing two commercial tanker ships in the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz, including one it shot at during the takeover attempt. And that was not an isolated incident; Iran has "attacked, seized, or attempted seizure of nearly 20 internationally flagged merchant vessels in the CENTCOM area of operations" in the past two years, U.S. military officials said Thursday.

"These additional forces provide unique capabilities, which alongside our partner nations in the region, further safeguard the free flow of international commerce and uphold the rules-based international order, and deter Iranian destabilizing activities in the region," CENTCOM's Army Gen. Erik Kurilla said in a statement.

Developing: "Iran has arrested and detained a fourth U.S. national, further complicating the Biden administration's efforts to secure an exchange of prisoners and lower tensions with Tehran," Semafor reported Friday morning.

The three Americans currently known to be in Iranian detention include businessmen Siamak Namazi and Emad Shargi and environmentalist Morad Tahbaz. It's unclear just yet who exactly the fourth American is. Semafor points out, "Iran has long used hostage-taking as a tool of statecraft."