SEOUL, South Korea – Around-the-clock train and truck convoys are moving military hardware from the tense border with North Korea as the U.S. Army prepares to redeploy 3,600 troops to Iraq.
The massive logistical feat began July 7 and is moving hundreds of Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, Humvees and artillery pieces to the southern port city of Busan to be shipped out under tight security.
About 3,600 troops from the U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, dug into encampments between Seoul and the heavily fortified border with North Korea, will follow their equipment to Iraq.
The redeployment – one of the biggest realignments in a decade along the Cold War’s last frontier – was announced in May and signals the first significant change of U.S. troop levels in South Korea since the early 1990s.
Also Friday:
* The military has decided not to pursue charges against a U.S. soldier accused of cowardice in Iraq after he sought help for panic attacks. A public affairs officer with the Army’s Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., said charges have been dropped because the military has learned Staff Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany “may have a medical problem that requires care and treatment.”
* The Philippines withdrew 11 more soldiers from Iraq to meet the demands of kidnappers holding a truck driver hostage, ignoring warnings from Washington that the move sends the wrong signal to terrorists.
* American troops and their Iraqi allies in the capital, Baghdad, continued to face attacks. Insurgents detonated a car bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad, wounding one U.S. soldier and four civilians, the U.S. command said.
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