US President Joe Biden says at least 11 US citizens have been killed in Israel
Reuters on October 10 quoted a senior US defense official as saying that the US military is rushing to provide air defense equipment, ammunition and other security support to help Israel deal with an unprecedented attack by Hamas forces.
"The planes are flying. We are stepping up our support to Israel. We maintain regular contact with our partners in Israel to identify and then support their most pressing needs," an anonymous US official told reporters covering the Pentagon.
The United States has not yet detailed the extent of Israel’s security assistance request. However, U.S. defense officials said Washington is reaching out to the defense industry to expedite pending Israeli orders and is looking at U.S. military stockpiles to help fill Israel’s shortfalls.
The official dismissed concerns that the US might have difficulty supplying Israel while also transferring weapons to Ukraine: "We can continue to support both Ukraine and Israel and maintain our own global readiness."
America sends FBI, not troops
Meanwhile, US officials said agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were working with their Israeli counterparts to locate and identify affected US citizens, but would not send troops to intervene.
According to CNN, US President Joe Biden said that at least 11 US citizens were killed in Israel. The White House said that there was a possibility of more information about other cases of US citizens who died.
FBI experts trained in crisis response are also being deployed to Israel to help the country's security forces locate several hostages, a source said.
In a related development, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US has no intention of sending troops to Israel.
However, he said President Biden "is always going to make sure that we're protecting our national security interests wherever those interests are, particularly in that region."
The spokesman added that the first additional US security assistance to help Israel deal with Hamas attacks was deployed on the evening of October 9 (Washington DC time).
There is no evidence of Iran's involvement.
Washington has not yet found any evidence that Iran was behind the Hamas attack in Israel, a senior US defense official told Reuters, following a report in The Wall Street Journal that Iranian security officials helped plan the attack. "Of course, Iran is in that context. Iran has supported Hamas and Hezbollah for many years. But we have no information to corroborate the specifics of The Wall Street Journal's report at this time," the official said.
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