US Military Commander Visits Aircraft Carrier in the Middle East

The top US military commander in the Middle East, Admiral Brad Cooper, recently visited the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier stationed in the Arabian Sea. The visit came after reports surfaced about mental health struggles and supply shortages on the ship. The Lincoln has been at sea for a record-breaking stretch of more than 240 days without a break. Admiral Cooper's 10-day tour of the region wrapped up on Saturday, according to US Central Command.

The USS Lincoln first arrived in the Middle East in January and has been supporting US military operations against Iran, including a blockade of Iranian ports. Large aircraft carriers like the Lincoln can carry more than 5,000 sailors and Marines at a time. Military leaders have raised concerns about what such long trips at sea do to the health and well-being of service members. Admiral Cooper called the Lincoln's mission 'one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era.'

During his regional tour, Admiral Cooper also traveled to Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. He met with both civilian and military leaders in each country. The visits were meant to strengthen US relationships across the Middle East during a tense period.

In Lebanon, Israel carried out airstrikes on Saturday that killed at least 11 people in the southern part of the country. Israel's military said the strikes targeted two senior commanders from Hezbollah, a militant group backed by Iran. One strike hit a home near the village of Ansar, killing seven people, including the commander Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan and members of his family. Another strike hit the village of Deir al-Zahrani, killing four more people, including a Hezbollah senior commander known as Abu Hassan Alaa.

These were the deadliest Israeli strikes in Lebanon since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect in June. Israel said that Hezbollah had broken the ceasefire first by attacking Israeli soldiers inside Lebanon, seriously wounding three of them. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Hezbollah 'deliberately put civilians' inside a military compound that Israel then struck. Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam criticized the airstrikes, and the United States has been working as a go-between in talks between Israel and Lebanon.

Meanwhile, a Hamas delegation traveled to Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday to hold ceasefire talks with Egyptian officials. The delegation was led by Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya. The talks are focused on a roadmap connected to US President Donald Trump's peace plan, which calls for Hamas to give up its weapons, for Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza, and for power to be handed over to Palestinian leaders who are not part of any militant group.

Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu has rejected the latest version of Trump's ceasefire plan. He said Israel will not pull its forces out of the roughly 60% of Gaza it controls until Hamas has completely disarmed. Hamas, which controls the other 40% of Gaza, has long refused to give up its weapons, leaving the situation at a standstill.

In a separate story, Iran said that Qatar's armed forces captured three Iranian pilots who went missing in March after their jets were shot down. Qatar denied that it was holding any pilots. A spokesperson for Qatar's foreign ministry said the pilots were shot down and that search and rescue teams had only found the remains of one of them. The two countries gave very different accounts of what happened, and the situation remained unresolved.