KUWAIT CITY, Nov 25: US and Kuwaiti troops are preparing for routine joint exercises in the northern Kuwaiti desert near Iraq as part of a continued deterrent to Baghdad, a US defence source said Sunday.

The source told AFP that around 2,000 US troops, who arrived in the emirate over the weekend, are currently distributed between Camp Doha, northwest of Kuwait City, and a US encampment 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Kuwait’s northern border with Iraq.

“Some of our forces are at Camp Doha, while others are out at the site where they’ve been for 10 years,” the source said.

“It’s too strong a statement to say the 2,000 (recently deployed US troops) are lined up along the border with Iraq.”

The source explained that the 2,000 troops are involved in regular training with Kuwaiti armed forces as part of a standard rotation.

Each rotation through Kuwait lasts four to six months in line with a defence pact signed with Washington after a US-led coalition expelled Iraqi occupation troops from the emirate in 1991.

The joint desert manoeuvres use heavy equipment, including tanks and artillery, stockpiled at Camp Doha, where at least 3,000 US troops are stationed all year round.

“It’s a larger rotation than before but they are doing the same thing — training and staying prepared,” said the source.

“It is a deterrent to Iraq and always has been ... (but) we’re also here to assure our Kuwaiti allies and friends we’re committed to the region.”

With US forces engaged in a war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced that the 2,000 troops, a brigade combat team from the 1st Cavalry Division based in Fort Hood, Texas, were to take part in an exercise called ‘Desert Spring’.—AFP