Some family members of troops sent to the Middle East last month in response to increased tensions with Iran have been told they will be redeployed back to the United States.
The service members that will be coming back to the U.S. are elements of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division who were deployed as an immediate reaction force, according to Breitbart. The specific soldiers are paratroopers deployed as part of Task Force White Devils and those attached to them. No return date has been announced.
“I would like to kindly encourage you all to be sensitive to the fact that there are still thousands of soldiers remaining in theatre and away from their loved ones for an unknown period of time,” a message to families read.
Families of deployed troops not with the task force did not receive additional information.
“For operational security purposes, we don’t talk about troop movements,” said a spokesman with the 82nd Airborne, which is based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Last month, a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the elite Quds Force and one of the most powerful figures in Iran. The 62-year-old major general was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops during the Iraq War.
Iran retaliated for the strike by firing more than a dozen missiles at two bases in Iraq that house U.S. troops.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Department of Defense for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
