The US central command dismissed the claims by Iranian Guards that they had hit USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf on Sunday. It said that the missiles launched by Iran “didn’t even come close”.“Iran’s IRGC claims to have struck USS Abraham Lincoln with ballistic missiles. LIE. The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn’t even come close. The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft in support of CENTCOM’s relentless campaign to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime,” it said in a post on X.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had claimed that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf in retaliation to the US and Israeli strikes that killed the country’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.“The US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln was struck by four ballistic missiles,” AFP quoted the Guards saying in a statement. It further warned that “the land and sea will increasingly become the graveyard of the terrorist aggressors”.
In January, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three guided-missile destroyers arrived to reinforce the naval contingent. They were later joined by the USS Gerald R Ford — the world’s largest aircraft carrier — along with four additional destroyers that were sent from the Caribbean toward the Middle East and are currently positioned in the Mediterranean.Altogether, the expanded deployment has brought more than 10,000 additional US troops into the region.A sweeping joint offensive by the United States and Israel killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, setting off retaliatory attacks across the region and sending shockwaves globally. The escalation widened on Sunday as Israel launched a major strike on Tehran, while Iran responded with drones and missiles targeting Israel, US military bases around the Gulf, and even the commercial hub of Dubai. In Pakistan, at least nine people were reported killed in unrest after protesters stormed the US consulate.The coordinated strikes, which began Saturday, raised fears of a broader regional war with potential consequences for global markets and energy supplies. In announcing the operation, US President Donald Trump called on Iranians to seize the moment and “take over,” framing the attack as an opportunity for political change.The assault came just days after fresh US-Iran nuclear talks, as Washington pressed Tehran to curb its atomic program, and amid mounting domestic discontent in Iran following protests that began over economic grievances and evolved into broader anti-government demonstrations.
