Debkafiles reported on Wednesday that the United States had posted a second aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, in the Persian Gulf and northern Arabian Sea.

The website said that the announcement came from the Pentagon Tuesday, Oct. 19, two days after the vessel put into port at Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain.
It also noted that it was the first time in two years that Washington had deployed two aircraft carriers at same time, not just one, in waters opposite Iran and Afghanistan.

The USS Harry S. Truman which has four squadrons of Hornet and Super Hornet fighter-bombers plus Squadron 116 of early warning, surveillance and command craft, Squadron 131 of electronic warfare craft, two more squadrons of helicopters and one of transports, was accompanied by the guided missile cruiser USS Cape St. George,  Debkafiles said.

It added that the Abraham Lincoln's arrival has raised the number of US fighter-bombers in Iran's neighborhood to 120.

The Pentagon announcement was careful to avoid mentioning Iran: US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates approved the presence of a second carrier in order to "provide surge support" for occupation forces in Afghanistan "and to support existing maritime security operations."

But the significance of two massive American naval-aerial strike forces opposite Iranian shores was not lost on Tehran, Debkafiles sources reported.
It said that Brig. Gen. Hussein Salami, Deputy Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards aid on Wednesday: "The enemies of Iran should know the Islamic establishment's red lines and not trespass them."