Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. Central Command headquarters, said the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group ended its mission after more than 260 days of duty in the Arabian Sea and that its forces will return to their country. He said the carrier group, in operations against the Islamic Republic, shot down more than 200 drones of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and carried out hundreds of attacks on the positions of this institution.

In an article published Sunday, 25 Mordad, in The Wall Street Journal, Cooper wrote that the crew of the carrier spent more than 150 days in a combat zone and that this mission was among the most compressed military operations of recent years. According to him, the group’s destroyers experienced the fiercest naval battle of the U.S. Navy since World War II, and the Lincoln carrier group carried out the Islamic Republic’s naval blockade twice.

The CENTCOM commander also referred to pressures resulting from this long mission on the crew and their families, and wrote that welfare issues have been reviewed and addressed, but sailors have been away from their families for months. The article was published in response to reports about crew burnout, supply problems, and concerns related to the crew’s mental health.