U.S. force in Iraq at 140,000

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has expanded its
force in Iraq to 140,000 troops, the most since January and
13,000 more than five weeks ago, the Pentagon said on Thursday,
amid relentless violence in Baghdad and elsewhere.

This follows July’s decision by commanders to augment the
U.S. military presence in Baghdad to try to curb escalating
sectarian violence that has heightened concern about all-out
civil war in Iraq.

As American troops continue to fight a tenacious insurgency
nearly 3 1/2 years into the war, U.S. military deaths in Iraq
reached at least 62 in August — increasing from 43 in July and
ending three straight monthly declines.

August’s total still was about average for a war in which
about 64 U.S. troops have died per month. There have been 2,635
U.S. military deaths since war began in March 2003, and another
19,773 troops have been wounded in action, the Pentagon said.

Recent moves including the Pentagon’s July 27 decision to
delay for up to four months the scheduled departure from Iraq
of about 4,000 soldiers from an Alaska-based brigade have
indicated significant U.S. troop cuts are unlikely in the near
future.

The Pentagon said the U.S. force, which stood at 127,000 on
July 25, now numbers 140,000.

A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the U.S. force likely will remain at about the current
level in the coming months, but could shrink a bit by the end
of the year depending on conditions in Iraq.

The arrival of fresh troops as part of the routine rotation
of U.S. forces also has contributed to the current increase
because some of those they are replacing have not yet left,
officials said.

This summer’s expansion of the U.S. force came in response
to a surge of violence particularly in the capital — much of
it between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims.

U.S. military officers in Baghdad have said violence
including murders declined in August from July’s high levels
but that there are still about 56 attacks per day in the
capital.

President George W. Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
and Army Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, all
have expressed a desire to reduce the U.S. presence in Iraq if
Iraqi security and political conditions permit.

Casey on Wednesday said he foresaw Iraqi government
security forces assuming control of security in their own
country within 12 to 18 months with “very little” support from
U.S.-led forces. But Casey said it was not clear when Iraqi
troops would be able to go it alone and the United States could
start withdrawing troops.

As recently as June, when the U.S. force stood at 125,000
with 14 combat brigades, Casey offered a plan to reduce by two
brigades — roughly 3,500 each — this fall, with perhaps two
more gone by December. His plan envisioned the U.S. force
shrinking to five or six combat brigades by December 2007.

Currently all or parts of 18 combat brigades are in Iraq,
according to the Pentagon.

The U.S. force in Iraq peaked last October and December at
around 160,000 troops to help protect two Iraqi elections.