Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a press conference on Tuesday that the United States was sending an aircraft carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean to commit “massacres” in Gaza.
The Pentagon announced Sunday that the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its escorts are deploying to the region in response to the attack by Hamas that has killed over 1,000 people, including 14 Americans. “What is the purpose of the aircraft carrier and what is it coming to do?” Erdogan asked.
“The U.S. is sending an aircraft carrier to Israel,” Erdogan said during the press conference. “What will it do with all its boats and aircraft around this ship?” Erdogan continued. “It will carry out very serious massacres by striking all of Gaza and its surroundings, dropping [bombs].”
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At least 100 hostages were taken by Hamas during the attack that targeted multiple locations in southern Israel, CBS News reported.
The Gerald R. Ford, the lead ship of a new class of aircraft carriers, carried over 75 aircraft, including F-35C Lightning and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters, E-2D Hawkeye radar planes and MH-60 helicopters, according to a U.S. Navy fact sheet and a feature from All Hands magazine.
The Ford is escorted by the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Normandy and four Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, according to a release from United States Central command.
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Erdogan’s regime has supported Hamas in the past, according to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and allowed the terrorist group’s military wing to have an office in Istanbul. Erdogan also ripped Israel after a May 31, 2010, raid on a flotilla of ships trying to break an Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Israeli military forces launched air strikes into Gaza in the wake of the Hamas attacks, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel’s response would “echo for generations.”
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