US top Middle East commander visits deployed aircraft carrier, and other Mideast news

Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, has visited the USS Lincoln in the Arabian Sea

Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, visited the USS Lincoln in the Arabian Sea during a 10-day tour in the region that concluded on Saturday, U.S. Central Command said.

Israel said its strikes in southern Lebanon , which killed at least 11 people, targeted two Hezbollah commanders. And a Hamas delegation is in Cairo on Sunday for Gaza ceasefire-related talks with Egyptian officials.

Here’s a look at the latest developments on Sunday in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here .

Adm. Cooper visited the USS Lincoln in the Arabian Sea as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed aircraft carrier . The Lincoln arrived in the Middle East in January and has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran , including the blockade on Iranian ports . Its deployment has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days.

Extended deployments of carriers – which can have more than 5,000 sailors and Marines on board – have raised concerns about the impact not only on the ships but on service members.

“History will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era,” Cooper said of the Lincoln strike group in a statement released Saturday.

Cooper also went to Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to meet with civilian and military leaders, according to the Central Command statement.

Israel’s military said it targeted two Hezbollah commanders in strikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, in the deadliest attacks since a truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah went into effect in June.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said at least 11 people were killed in two strikes – one on a home on the edge of Ansar village where seven people died, and another on the village of Deir al-Zahrani, where four were killed.

Israel’s military said early on Sunday morning that the latter strike killed Abu Hassan Alaa, whom it described as a “senior commander” for Hezbollah who had taken part in attacks against Israel’s soldiers in southern Lebanon as well as led militants who targeted Israeli soldiers and civilians over several years.

Earlier, Israel’s military had said the strike on Ansar killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, whom it described as a battalion commander with Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force unit. The military said Haj Hassan’s family was with him, but emphasized that the family was not targeted.

The United States has been mediating talks between Israel and the Lebanese government.

On Saturday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam criticized Israel’s airstrikes. The office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah violated the ceasefire by attacking Israeli soldiers inside Lebanon, seriously wounding three. It added the military responded by striking the Hezbollah headquarters, which ordered the attack, learning only later that Hezbollah “deliberately put civilians” in that military compound.