US to pour more troops into Iraq

Iraqi civilians stand on the debris of a homeless shelter, which was hit in a pre-dawn bombing raid in Baghdad yesterday. The building collapsed onto families sleeping in the west Baghdad compound of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) killing one woman and wounding eight other people. PHOTO: AFP

Senior defense officials said Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the deployment of an extra brigade of the elite 82nd Airborne Division to Iraq next month and extended the tour of duty of another brigade to maintain combat power as other forces are rotated out.

The deployment will increase the total size of the US force in Iraq by a couple of thousand troops over a three month period during which the entire force is to be replaced with fresh units, the officials said.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

"It is a spike, no question about it," said one official. "But it will provide some capability during the transition period that Abizaid thought was important."

General John Abizaid, commander of the US Central Command, had asked for the deployment of the 82nd Airborne's 1st Brigade after deciding that an infantry brigade of the Washington National Guard that was to have deployed to Iraq in January needed more training.

The latest US casualty in Iraq came as a top US general warned that insurgents fighting the US-led occupation were increasingly targeting Iraqi civilians and security forces.

The fatality brought to 199 the number of US combat troops killed in Iraq since President George W. Bush declared major fighting over on May 1, according to an AFP count.

US troops killed two people and captured 86 others during anti-insurgency operations Thursday in the flashpoint town of Samarra.

Meanwhile, the US-led Iraq Survey Group hunting for weapons of mass destruction has had its personnel reduced to under 40, a British newspaper reported yesterday.

The Independent daily said the move showed US President George W. Bush had in effect "washed his hands" of the hunt for such weapons in Iraq.

The survey group has a nominal staff of 1,400 US and British specialists, analysts and translators. But the numbers in the field have been less, with two teams of 20 at most deployed, said the Independent.

"In October, the group's strength dwindled further when Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defense Secretary, ordered many personnel to be transferred to the regular forces to help counter the growing rebellion," said the London-based paper, without citing its sources.