Top U.S. Middle East commander visits USS Lincoln as carrier’s record-length deployment draws scrutiny

Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, visited the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln in the Arabian Sea as part of a 10-day regional tour that ended Saturday, according to U.S. Central Command.

The visit came amid reports of mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed carrier. The Lincoln arrived in the Middle East in January and has supported the U.S. campaign against Iran, including the blockade of Iranian ports. Its deployment has included more than 240 consecutive days at sea, a record-setting stretch.

Carriers typically carry more than 5,000 sailors and Marines, and extended time at sea has long raised worries about the strain on both ships and service members. In a statement released Saturday, Cooper described the Lincoln strike group’s deployment as "one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era."

During the tour, Cooper also traveled to Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to meet with civilian and military leaders, Central Command said.

Separately, Israel said its strikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday killed two Hezbollah commanders in the deadliest attacks since a cease-fire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah took effect in June. Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said at least 11 people were killed in two strikes.

One strike hit a home on the edge of Ansar village, killing seven people. Another in Deir al-Zahrani killed four. Early Sunday, Israel’s military identified the Deir al-Zahrani target as Abu Hassan Alaa, described as a "senior commander" for Hezbollah who had taken part in attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians over several years.

The Ansar strike, Israel said, killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, a battalion commander with Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. The military said his family was with him, but stressed that they were not targeted.

On Saturday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam criticized the strikes. The United States has been mediating talks between Israel and the Lebanese government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office accused Hezbollah of violating the cease-fire by attacking Israeli soldiers inside Lebanon and seriously wounding three. It said the military struck the Hezbollah headquarters that ordered the attack, and that Israel only later learned the group "deliberately put civilians" in that military compound.

In Cairo, a Hamas delegation led by the group’s leader, Khalil al-Hayya, arrived Sunday for Gaza cease-fire talks with Egyptian officials, the group said. The meeting comes as mediators push to implement a roadmap intended to advance President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which calls for Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza to disarm, Israeli forces to withdraw from the area, and power to be handed to Palestinian technocrats.

Netanyahu has rejected Trump’s latest plan to advance the stalled cease-fire in Gaza, saying Israel will not withdraw from any of the roughly 60 percent of the territory it controls until Hamas has been completely disarmed — something the militant group, which controls the remaining 40 percent, has long resisted.

It was not immediately clear whether al-Hayya would meet with Trump’s son-in-law and negotiator Jared Kushner, the Board of Peace’s high representative Nickolay Mladenov, or former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, an executive board member, who are scheduled to travel to Israel and Egypt this week.

In a separate development, the Missing Persons Committee of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff said Qatar’s military has captured and is holding three Iranian pilots who went missing in March when their jets were downed. Qatar denied the claim. Iran’s state TV reported Sunday that the committee’s commander responded by urging Qatar to allow Iranian Air Force experts to conduct a field investigation. A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed Al Ansari, rejected the allegation and indicated on X that the pilots had been shot down and that Qatar’s search and rescue teams found the remains of one pilot.