Shafaq News/ US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, and equipped with F-35 fighters, to "accelerate its transit" to the region, due to the threat of a large-scale attack by Hezbollah or Iran on Israel, according to AFP.

Recent Israeli assassinations of Hezbollah’s top military commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran have heightened regional tensions, with Iran and Hezbollah vowing retaliation, while the US pledged support for Israel in the event of an attack.

Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said that Austin, after speaking with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, “also ordered the USS Georgia guided missile submarine to the area.”

Ryder affirmed that the pair discussed "the importance of mitigating civilian harm, progress towards securing a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza," and efforts to deter aggression from Iran-aligned groups in the region.

Notably, the Abraham Lincoln has been in the Asia Pacific, and had already been ordered to the Middle East to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group, which is scheduled to begin heading home.

Last week, the US announced the deployment of a strike group, along with additional cruisers and destroyers equipped with ballistic missile defense capabilities, and a fighter squadron.