The size of the U.S. force in Iraq has reached nearly 162,000 troops, the largest American presence at any point during the 52 months of the war, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
The increase is the result of the regular replacement of forces and does not represent an extra buildup of U.S. troops, said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
“There is no change to the level of effort and the combat power that we are projecting into Iraq,” Whitman said.
Officials reported Tuesday that five more troops had been killed in Iraq, bringing the total this month to 19. Three of the soldiers were killed Saturday when their convoy hit a roadside bomb south of Baghdad. Two others died Sunday in Baghdad, from mortars or rockets. The British military also announced that a British soldier was shot and killed Monday in the southern city of Basra.
Pentagon officials repeatedly have predicted that militants will try to step up the pace of their attacks in advance of Gen. David Petraeus’ September progress report to Congress.
Since the arrival in June of all of the extra U.S. forces ordered to Iraq as part of the troop buildup, the number of service members in Iraq has been about 157,000. Whitman said the size of the force is likely to return to that level in a few weeks and then dart up again as brigades rotate in and out of Iraq.
The military typically has units overlap in Iraq so the outgoing unit can help the new force. Army officials said the biggest reason for the current increase was that the 2nd Stryker Calvary Regiment has arrived In Iraq to replace the 2nd Infantry Division’s 3rd Stryker Brigade.
In Iraq’s north, the semiautonomous Kurdish government approved a regional oil law Tuesday, paving the way for foreign investment in their oil and gas fields even as similar U.S.-backed legislation for the entire country remained stalled, The Associated Press reported.
The measure gives the regional government the right to administer its oil wealth in the three northern governates — Irbil, Sulaymaniyah and Dahuk — as well as what it called “disputed territories,” referring to Kirkuk, one of Iraq’s largest crude-oil hubs.