Washington, April 25 -- The USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, the US military said on 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. afp...