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A Pentagon spokesman added that the Americans had launched a dozen interceptors against the Iranian missiles and that none of the 40,000 U.S. troops in the region were hurt in the attacks.
- Oct. 1, 2024, 5:14 p.m. ET
American naval forces helped Israel shoot down many of the approximately 180 incoming Iranian missiles on Tuesday evening, a shoulder-to-shoulder demonstration of military prowess that rendered the attack on Israeli cities “defeated and ineffective,” President Biden said.
“Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel,” Mr. Biden told reporters hours after the attack.
Two U.S. naval destroyers based in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the U.S.S. Bulkeley and the U.S.S. Cole, launched a dozen interceptors against the Iranian missiles, said Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary. None of the 40,000 American troops in the region were hurt in the attacks, he added.
Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, said there had been “meticulous joint planning” between U.S. forces and their Israeli counterparts in anticipation of possible Iranian military action. That followed Mr. Biden’s recent vow to do everything in his power to help defend Israel against potential attacks from its adversaries.
Mr. Sullivan declined to say whether the United States would participate in a possible Israeli counter-strike against Iran. In April, when the United States helped Israel defeat a similar attack by Iran, Mr. Biden told the Israeli government that he would not authorize the use of American forces in a direct strike at Iran, and urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to “take the win.”
After the missile attacks on Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu made it clear that the Israeli military would respond at a time of its choosing. “The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and to retaliate against our enemies,” he said in a video message after the attacks.
