WASHINGTON, Dec 19: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has approved the deployment of an extra brigade of the elite 82nd Airborne Division to Iraq in January and extended that of another brigade to maintain combat power as other forces are being swapped out, senior US defense officials said Thursday.

The deployment will increase the total size of the US force in Iraq by a couple of thousand troops over a three month period in which the entire force is being replaced with fresh units, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“It is a spike, no question about it,” said a senior defense official. “But it will provide some capability during the transition period that Abizaid thought was important.”

General John Abizaid, commander of the US Central Command, asked for the deployment of the 82nd Airborne’s 1st Brigade after deciding that an infantry brigade of the Washington National Guard that was supposed to deploy in January needed more training, the officials said.

“The combatant commander has made his assessments. It is a very fluid situation. Because of how he has positioned his force, it has created a gap,” a senior military official said.

“And the deployment of the 1st (Brigade) of the 82nd is to provide for continuity within that gap period,” he said.

They said the 1st Brigade, which just returned from a six month tour in Afghanistan in September, will deploy only for about 120 days and not all units will go.

Rumsfeld also approved extending for two months the deployment of the 82nd Airborne’s 3rd Brigade, which has been in Iraqi since August operating in the Fallujah and Ar Ramadi area, a focus of Baathist resistance, the officials said.—AFP