WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The amphibious transport ship USS Mesa Verde with 550 Marines on board entered the Gulf on Monday to support possible U.S. action to help Iraq's Shi'ite-led government combat a Sunni Islamist insurgency that has overtaken large areas of the country's north, a U.S. defense official said.
President Barack Obama has said he is considering military action, short of putting U.S. troops in Iraq, to aid Baghdad's efforts to stop the insurgency.
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