US aircraft carrier returns to Persian Gulf after long absence

A US aircraft carrier has sailed into the Persian Gulf, becoming the first since America’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. The move has also broken the longest carrier absence in the region since at least the September 11 terror attacks, AP reported. The arrival on Friday of the USS John C. Stennis comes as Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes. Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels shadowed the aircraft carrier and its strike group. They launched a drone, as well as test-fired rockets away from the aircraft carrier and its strike group, according to the report.