DEBKAfile's military sources report exclusively that Britain and France deployed reinforcements from their air forces, navies, marines and special forces to the Persian Gulf area over the weekend. They included warships accompanied by tankers, showing that the vessels will be in the area for an extended period. The sources added that British and French warplanes and refueling planes arrived during the last few days at airbases in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Both Paris and London imposed a media blackout of the latest operations.
A week ago, on April 9, the US announced that it had placed B-52 long-range strategic bombers at Al Udeid base in Qatar for operations against ISIS targets in the Middle East. US spokesmen refused to specify the number of B-52s that had been deployed.