By Pauline Jelinek
The Associated Press, 07 September 2006
The number of U.S. troops in Iraq rose to 145,000 this week, the highest since December and 15,000 more than a month ago.
Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician said Thursday the increase is temporary, and that it owes to a routine rotation of forces — that is, a bump in numbers. Such a shift lasts for a matter of weeks, he said, as replacement troops arrive and overlap with troops ending their tours and preparing to leave.
The number stood at about 130,000 in the final days of July, when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld temporarily extended the tours of some 3,500 Americans in effort to stem escalating sectarian violence in the capital city of Baghdad.
Vician said there are no indications that officials are planning more extensions.
Amid declining American public support for the war and growing calls from Congress for a phase troop withdrawal, Rumsfeld and Army Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, have repeatedly said that reduction in troops there depends on training Iraqi forces to take control of their country's security as well as political progress toward a stable, functioning government.
Officials earlier had hoped to reduce forces to around 100,000 by the end of this year.
Vician said the troop level was last around 145,000 last December, when extra security was deployed for the Iraqi elections.
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Citation: Pauline Jelinek. "U.S. forces in Iraq number 145,000," The Associated Press, 07 September 2006.
Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060907/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_troops
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