US to deploy forces in warning to Iran

The United States is deploying a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East to send a clear message to Iran that any attack on US interests or its allies will be met with "unrelenting force", US national security adviser John Bolton says.

Amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran, Bolton said the decision was "in response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings".

"The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or regular Iranian forces," Bolton said in a statement.

The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force would be deployed to a region overseen by the Pentagon's US Central Command, whose areas of responsibility include the Middle East.

The statement comes amid new violence flares between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza. The group Islamic Jihad, which has a foothold in Gaza, is seen as an Iranian proxy.