US deploys strategic bombers to Qatar against ‘ISIL’

The United States military has sent an unspecified number of strategic B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf littoral state of Qatar to join what it calls the fight against Daesh (ISIL).

The US deployed B-52 bombers to Qatar on Saturday to fight Daesh in Iraq and Syria, the US Air Forces Central Command said.

The deployment is the first of the kind in the Persian Gulf region since the end of the US-led war against Iraq in 1991 following the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.

The US Air Force said it last flew the long-range bombers operationally in the Middle East in May 2006 as part of the war in Afghanistan, and during a US-led military exercise in Jordan in May 2015.

"The B-52 demonstrates our continued resolve to apply persistent pressure on Daesh and defend the region in any future contingency," said Air Force Lieutenant General Charles Brown, commander of US Air Forces Central Command.

Lieutenant Colonel Chris Karns, spokesman for the Central Command, said he could not provide the exact number of B-52 bombers to be based at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar due to "operational security reasons," Reuters reported.

Washington's decision to deploy B-52 bombers to Qatar came as the US military claims to have stepped up the fight against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

SS