WASHINGTON – The Pentagon’s decision to increase U.S. forces in Iraq will push troop levels there to roughly 135,000, dashing Bush administration hopes of dropping the figure by tens of thousands by the fall congressional campaigns.
As of Friday, there were 16 Army and Marine brigades in Iraq, two more than the number several months ago. Total troops there had already reached 132,000 and will climb in the coming weeks because of a decision to delay the scheduled return home this month of an Alaskan Army Stryker brigade.
The decision came in response to the escalating violence in Baghdad, and the new troop levels could remain for much of the next year.
“You’re going to see that spike, that is a sustained spike, for a while, and you’re going to still have force rotations that take place,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. He added that the increases could push totals above 135,000 when brigades overlap as they are moving in and out of the country.
“What you’re seeing is a flexible and adaptable force, based on those changing dynamic conditions that are now being addressed by the application of additional Iraqi and U.S. forces,” he said.
The increase comes as members of Congress are preparing to return to their home districts and push into their re-election campaigns, and it robs them of the ability to tell an increasingly impatient public that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will substantially drop by the end of the year.
In Iraq, a four-hour vehicle ban reduced violence Friday, the main Muslim day of worship. The ban has been imposed on Fridays for weeks to prevent bombings of mosques.
Nevertheless, four people were killed and nine were wounded when a bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in southeast Baghdad, police Capt. Ahmed Ali said.
Gunmen killed two civilians who worked for U.S. troops in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown 80 miles north of Baghdad, police said. And in the nearby town of Beiji, a man who worked for the railroad was shot and killed.
Associated Press
Steven Sedgwick, 5, brings his father’s pack to the bus as troops from the National Guard’s 134th Military Police Company depart for Fort Dix, N.J., from Norwich, Conn., Friday. The troops will deploy to Iraq from Fort Dix.
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