WASHINGTON, July 15: The Pentagon said on Tuesday it planned to completely withdraw the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division from Iraq by the end of the fall, delaying the return of the division that invaded from the south and captured Baghdad.

The 3rd Infantry Division spearheaded the invasion from Kuwait and has been largely responsible for patrolling the streets of Baghdad and hunting down remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The delay comes as the burden grows on the US military in managing postwar Iraq, and as other countries appear reluctant to join the effort to stabilize Iraq.

“We try to avoid strict timelines,” a Pentagon spokeswoman said Monday, minimalizing the importance of the delay. “The deployment of troops and bringing troops back is a very fluid situation.”

“The combatant commanders on the ground make their decisions on what troop levels they need, depending on what the situation is in country,” she said.

The postponement comes as many of the 148,000 US troops in Iraq grow increasingly weary of their mission in Iraq, facing daily attacks in the hot Iraqi summer.—dpa