American B-2 stealth bombers left the US and appeared to be heading toward Diego Garcia, a strategic military base in the Indian Ocean, on Saturday.
The warplanes were using the call sign MYTEE21, which has previously been associated with stealth bomber missions. The bombers were accompanied by eight supply planes.
The B-2 Spirit is designed for long-range strike missions and is capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear weapons.
It is the only aircraft capable of delivering the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, also known as the bunker buster bomb. Bunker busters could be used in a possible attack on Fordow, the Iranian nuclear facility buried 300ft inside a mountain.
It was unclear whether the bombers were heading to Diego Garcia or a US military base in Guam.
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The United States would need British permission to launch strikes from Diego Garcia, over which the UK maintains sovereignty.
This would not be necessary if they deployed from the base in Guam.
On Thursday, President Trump said he would make a decision on whether to strike Iran “in the next two weeks”.
In a message relayed via Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, he said: “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that