WASHINGTON, 8 August 2007 — US troop levels in Iraq have hit an all-time high with overlapping unit rotations pushing the total number up to nearly 162,000, the Pentagon said yesterday. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the previous high water mark in the more than four-year-old war was about 161,000 troops in January 2005 when national elections were held for the first time.
But Whitman, who put the current number of US troops at “nearly 162,000,” said the latest hike was not a move to further beef up the “surge” force that has been deployed to Iraq over the course of the year to halt a slide toward civil war. “There is no change to the level effort and combat power that we are projecting into Iraq. The 20 combat brigade and the associated combat services and combat support that are required to sustain that level remains constant,” he said.
“What has changed today with the numbers spiking a little bit is due to just the normal flow of forces in and out,” he said. The 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment from Vilseck, Germany, and a combat aviation brigade are deploying into Iraq, while two combat aviation brigades are on their way out, the Pentagon said. Whitman said a combat brigade plus support units are rotating into and out of Iraq in any given month.
Four more US soldiers were killed in roadside bombings in the Baghdad area, including three in a single strike, the military said yesterday, raising to at least 19 the number of troop deaths in the first week of August. A British soldier also died from injuries sustained in a gunbattle Monday in the southern city of Basra, the British Ministry of Defense said.
A total of 165 British Armed Forces personnel have died in Iraq since the start of the campaign in March 2003. The numbers signaled resurgence in attacks after a drop in July. US commanders have warned they expected militants to try to upstage a September report on military and economic progress in Iraq.
Iraq’s political crisis also worsened as five ministers loyal to former Iraqi leader Ayad Allawi announced a boycott of Cabinet meetings — leaving Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s unity government with no members affiliated with Sunni political factions. The Iraqi List expressed frustrations that its demands had been ignored but did not impose a deadline.
“We have to warn all political groups ... that the dangers are real and our people are suffering and bleeding,” the group said in a statement.
“Leaving things as they are now will mean more destruction for our people.” Maliki arrived in Turkey for a state visit likely to be dominated by Turkish warnings to either crack down on rebel Kurdish bases in northern Iraq or face a possible incursion.
