MIDDLE EAST - A carrier strike group led by the Nimitz-class supercarrier USS John C. Stennis has arrived in the Middle East, ending an eight month period without a US carrier based in the region, the US Navy has reported. The carrier group will be based with the 5th Fleet, whose zone of responsibility includes the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf, and will be stationed in the region for at least two months. According to the US government-funded news service Voice of America, the carrier strike group is being deployed to “help in the fight against the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria and the war in Afghanistan.” Furthermore, a defense official confirmed earlier reports that the US was beefing up its presence in the region as a “message” to Tehran, telling VOA that “just being there is a show of force to Iran.”