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2 of 2: We call on the Iranian regime to cease all provocation. We will hold the Iranian regime accountable for any attack on US forces or our interests.

— Acting SecDef Pat Shanahan (@ActingSecDef) May 6, 2019

Shanahan called the move, on Twitter, a \"prudent repositioning of assets in response to indications of a credible threat by Iranian regime forces.\"

\"We call on the Iranian regime to cease all provocation,\" he said. \"We will hold the Iranian regime accountable for any attack on U.S. forces or our interests.\"

\"PHOTO:
U.S. Navy
PHOTO: An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 41 launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis in the Arabian Gulf, April 5, 2019.
>

Speaking with reporters in Finland on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the U.S. has a responsibility to protect American diplomats around the world, but he specifically mentioned Erbil and Baghdad in Iraq and Amman in Jordan.

\"And so any time we receive threat reporting, things that raise concerns, we do everything we can both to -- do all that we can to make sure that those planned or contemplated attacks don't take place and to make sure that we've got the right security posture,\" Pompeo said.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, the lead ship in the Carrier Strike Group, left Norfolk, Virginia on April 1. The Navy no longer provides destinations for its carrier deployments, but the carrier likely would have had to transit through the Middle East toward its new home port of San Diego at the end of its deployment. The ship is currently in the Mediterranean Sea.

Assigned to the Lincoln carrier strike group is the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf and four Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the USS Bainbridge, USS Gonzalez, USS Mason, and USS Nitze. A Spanish frigate is also accompanying the group, but it's unclear if it will stay with the American ships as they head east.

The carrier group had planned to make a port visit in Split, Croatia which has been cancelled.

The aircraft carrier USS John Stennis operated in the Persian Gulf twice during its recent deployment, for three weeks earlier this year and a week in early April.

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