FILE – In this Sept. 18, 2016, file photo provided by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a meeting in Tehran, Iran. Iraqi TV and three Iraqi officials said Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, that Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, has been killed in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File)

(WRIC) — The Selective Service website crashed Friday after United States defense officials said thousands of additional Army troops are being deployed to the Middle East as reinforcements in the volatile aftermath of the killing of an Iranian general in a strike ordered by President Donald Trump.

In a Friday morning tweet, the Selective Service said their website was down due to “the spread of misinformation.”

“If you are attempting to register or verify registration, please check back later today as we are working to resolve this issue,” the tweet continued.

This comes at the same time #WorldWarIII is trending on Twitter.

HAPPENING NOW: Selective Service website is down amid “the spread of misinformation.”



This comes at the same time that #WorldWarIII is also trending. @8NEWS https://t.co/or17gP4awH — Amy Simpson (@amysimpson8news) January 3, 2020

Under current US law, all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 25 are required to register. It’s been nearly 50 years since the last time the US made draft calls.

On Friday, defense officials said nearly 3,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina are being deployed. They are in addition to about 700 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne who deployed to Kuwait earlier this week after the storming of the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad by Iran-backed militiamen and their supporters.

The dispatching of extra troops reflects concern about potential Iranian retaliatory action for the killing Thursday of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force. But it also runs counter to Trump’s repeated push to extract the United States from Mideast conflicts.

Prior to this week’s troop deployments, the administration had sent 14,000 additional troops to the Mideast since May, when it first publicly claimed Iran was planning attacks on U.S. interests.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.