World

40,000 troops told of fall deployment

by Dave Keating | May 19, 2008 at 11:44 pm

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Though many of them have now served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has alerted 40,000 US troops that they will be deployed in the war zones in the fall. Some of them have been home less than 12 months, a direct violation of Pentagon policy of making sure soldiers are home at least a year before they are sent back to a war zone.

The Pentagon alerted about 40,000 active-duty and National Guard soldiers yesterday that they will be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in the fall, a sign that the military expects hard fighting to continue through late next year.

The new orders will maintain the overall strength in Iraq at 15 combat brigades, about 130,000 troops, for next year. That is approximately the number of troops deployed in Iraq before President Bush ordered 25,000 additional troops deployed in January 2007.

The new deployments also will enable the Pentagon to keep the number of troops in Afghanistan at about 33,000, the current level. But senior Pentagon officials have said they are weighing a request to increase the troop levels in Afghanistan by two or possibly three brigades, about 10,000 troops.