WASHINGTON (AFP) – The U.S. Navy has deployed a fifth destroyer to the eastern Mediterranean, a defense official told AFP on Thursday, as expectations grow of an imminent strike on Syria.

The U.S.S. Stout, a guided missile destroyer, is “in the Mediterranean, heading and moving east” to relieve the U.S.S. Mahan, said the official, who said both ships might remain in place for the time being.