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WASHINGTON: The Pentagon on Monday announced a scheduled deployment
of 33,000 troops to Iraq early next year as regular rotations.
The troops include four army brigades and two
Marine regiments, the Pentagon said in a statement.
There are some 146,000 US troops in Iraq right
now and the number will drop to 142,000 by mid-July under the
partial withdrawal plan announced by President George W. Bush early
this year.
Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees all US forces
in the Middle East, said in May that he may recommend further troop
reduction in September but it is condition-based.
Most analysts said Bush is likely to maintain a
large troop presence in Iraq through January 2009, the end of his
tenure.
But there are growing calls from within and
outside the military to shift focus to Afghanistan, and Barack Obama,
the Democratic presidential nominee, promised to start withdrawal
immediately after he assumes the office of president if he wins this
year’s general election.
-- Xinhua
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