AFP, Washington

The USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, the US military said Thursday, bringing the number of the massive American warships operating in the region to three.

The Bush was sailing “in the Indian Ocean in the US Central Command area of responsibility, April 23,” the military command responsible for the Middle East said in a post on X that included an image of the carrier with its deck packed with warplanes.

A second carrier -- the USS Gerald R Ford -- was operating in the Red Sea on Thursday, while a third -- the USS Abraham Lincoln -- is also in the region, according to social media posts by CENTCOM.

The deployment of the third aircraft carrier to the Middle East comes during a more than two-week ceasefire that paused the devastating US-Israeli air campaign against Iran that was launched in late February.

The Ford sailed to Croatia for repairs several weeks ago after a laundry fire broke out aboard the ship on March 12, but the world’s largest aircraft carrier has since returned to operations.

The Ford has been at sea for more about 10 months -- a deployment that has already seen it take part in US operations in the Caribbean, where Washington’s forces have carried out strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats, interdicted sanctioned tankers and seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.