WASHINGTON

The US is sending an additional 300 troops to the Middle East to bolster forces already deployed to the region, the Pentagon said Tuesday amid soaring regional tensions.

"These additional troops will provide capabilities and explosive ordnance disposal communications and other support enablers for forces already in the region," Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters. "They are intended to support regional deterrence efforts, and further bolster US force protection capabilities."

Ryder declined to specify where they would be sent, but ruled out any deployment to Israel. The forces are all being sent from US bases.

There have so far been 27 attacks on US forces in the Middle East during October, including 16 in Iraq and 11 in Syria, Ryder said. That includes six "small-scale attacks" since the US carried out a series of what it calls "self-defense strikes" on Iranian-backed groups on Oct. 26.

Washington has strengthened its force posture in the Middle East due to the risk of a widening conflict, feared to escalate with the involvement of both state and non-state actors hostile to Israel. That has included sending two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean in the wake of Hamas's shocking Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel that killed over 1,400 Israelis.

Israel has retaliated by imposing a "full siege" on Gaza that has ground international assistance to the enclave to a near halt. Israel has separately carried out a relentless bombing campaign that has killed more than 8,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

Amid the violence, Iran-backed proxy groups have launched a series of attacks on US forces in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.