Two U.S. aircraft carriers head for Gulf region, Kuwaiti media report

Kuwait began finalizing its “emergency war plan” on being told the vessels were bound for the region, the report said.

A London-based trader said the crude prices climbed on the news. �

The U.S. Navy will neither confirm nor deny that carriers are currently en route. The U.S. Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment because of what a spokesman termed “force-protection policy,” the paper said.

While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believes are heading for the Middle East, the Media Line’s defense analyst said they could be the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan.

Within the last month, the Roosevelt completed an exercise along the U.S. east coast focusing on communication among the navies of different countries. It has since been declared ready for operational duties. The Reagan, currently with the Seventh Fleet, has just set sail from Japan.

The Seventh Fleet area of operation stretches from the East Coast of Africa to the International Date Line.

Meanwhile, the Arabic news agency Moheet reported at the end of July that an unnamed American destroyer, accompanied by two Israeli naval vessels traveled through the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean. A week earlier, a U.S. nuclear submarine accompanied by a destroyer and a supply ship moved into the Mediterranean, according to Moheet.

Currently there are two U.S. naval battle groups operating in the Gulf: one is an aircraft carrier group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, which carries some 65 fighter aircraft. The other group is headed by the USS Peleliu, which maintains a variety of planes and strike helicopters.

The report came at a time when the tension is set to rise further over Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. threatened to apply new sanctions to Iran after Tehran insisted on its refusal to stop uranium enrichment.