10 more US combat brigades for Iraq: Deployment orders announced
WASHINGTON, May 8: The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that 10 US combat brigades with 35,000 troops have received orders to deploy to Iraq later this year, enough to sustain a “surge” in forces through the end of the year if necessary.
Decisions have not been made on future force levels, but the deployment orders will make it possible to sustain up to 20 combat brigades in Iraq through the end of the year, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
Whitman said the 10 combat brigades, all from the active duty army, have been given orders to deploy between August and December of this year.
“This announcement is being made today to identify units as replacement forces for formations on the ground in order to provide necessary lead time for them to complete their preparations,” Whitman said.
“The (Defence) Department has made very clear that decisions on the surge will depend entirely upon conditions on the ground,” he said.
General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, has said he will make a recommendation in September on whether the US strategy is working, or a new course of action is needed.
Meanwhile, the administration is resisting pressure from a Democratic-controlled Congress for a phased withdrawal of US forces beginning as early as Oct 1.
Whitman said adjustments can be made to the deployment dates at a later date to reflect future decisions on force levels.
“But again we want to make some decisions to add some predictability, to add some preparation for deployment,” he said. “So we're identifying what the next ten units will be and currently these are slated for deployment between August and December.” Facing a crunch in available forces, the army recent extended deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan to up to 15 months.
Among the deploying units are 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort Hood, Texas; three brigades of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and a Stryker brigade from Vilseck, Germany.
Single brigades will also come from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Polk, Louisiana; the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia; the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii; and the 1st Armored Division in Germany.
An engineer battalion and a signals battalion, more than 900 troops in all, also will be deployed in support of the combat brigades, the army said.
The United States has been building up its forces in Iraq since mid-February with the aim of reducing sectarian violence sufficiently to enable Iraqi leaders to make progress on political reconciliation.
Five additional combat brigades are being added to the force, but so far only three are in country and the build-up will not peak before mid-June.
The results of the increased presence have been mixed at best so far, with a surge in car bombings and suicide attacks attributed to Al Qaeda in Iraq engulfing what the military says is a decline in sectarian murders.—AFP
