One of the two U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups stationed in the Middle East to deter potential Iranian attacks on Israel has left the region, the Pentagon announced on Thursday. 

This decision comes nearly three weeks after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the USS Theodore Roosevelt to remain in the Middle East, despite the arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, which had been deployed as its replacement.

Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, confirmed during a press briefing that the Roosevelt has now departed and is en route to the Asia-Pacific region. The Roosevelt’s extended deployment, initiated on August 25, came as Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel, while Israel retaliated with airstrikes involving around 100 jets. These events marked one of the largest confrontations in more than 10 months of border hostilities.

U.S. officials have also been on alert over potential Iranian retaliation following the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran in July. Despite the Roosevelt's departure, Ryder emphasized that the U.S. remains vigilant about potential threats from Iran.

"Iran has indicated that they want to retaliate against Israel. And so we're going to continue to take that threat very seriously," Ryder told reporters, dismissing any notion that the U.S. is lowering its guard regarding the possibility of Iranian actions.

The decision to scale back to one carrier strike group in the region, Ryder noted, was primarily due to operational needs and fleet management. However, the U.S. military remains focused on deterring threats in the Middle East.