10,000 soldiers from Fort Lewis ordered to Iraq

[David]

AP


WASHINGTON – Six Army brigades, a National Guard unit, and three military headquarters — including about 10,000 soldiers from Fort Lewis — have been ordered to deploy to Iraq next summer in a move that would allow the United States to keep the number of troops largely steady there through much of next year.

The planned deployments involve about 26,000 troops and would maintain 14 combat brigades in Iraq from about February to early fall. But the decisions do not rule out potential changes as military leaders assess the security there and eye more troop withdrawals.

The Fort Lewis troops are part of 26,000 the Pentagon is deploying to maintain 14 combat brigades in Iraq.

The Fort Lewis units are the I (First) Corps headquarters unit, and the 3rd and 5th Stryker brigades.

This will be the first deployment for the 5th Stryker brigade and the third for the 3rd Stryker brigade.

Even as violence in Iraq has plunged in the past year, cautious Pentagon leaders have resisted insistent public and congressional calls for more rapid and hefty troop pullouts. Instead, top commanders insist the security situation remains fragile, and the improvements reversible.

President Bush announced earlier this month that the United States will withdraw about 8,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by February, with about half leaving before the end of 2008. The number of combat brigades in Iraq will remain at 15 through January, when one will leave and not be replaced. Pentagon officials have suggested more reductions could be made by summer.

There are now about 152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

The Iraq drawdown will allow troops to be diverted to Afghanistan, where violence has escalated and commanders say they need more than 10,000 more troops to train Afghans and fight militants.

Headquarters, I Corps expects to deploy in the spring and will replace XVIII Airborne Corps and assume duties as the Multi-National Corps – Iraq, according to a news release.

Six of the 10 units slated to head to Iraq next year are from Washington or North Carolina, with others from Texas, Kansas and Wyoming. It would mark the first time the Army’s 1st Corps headquarters out of Fort Lewis has deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan.