US to add 100,000 troops to Iraq force

12.00pm - by CHARLES ALDINGER

WASHINGTON - The US military plans to double its forces on the ground in Iraq to about 200,000 in the next month as the United States and Britain press to oust Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, US officials said today.

There are currently about 125,000 US and British soldiers and Marines fighting in Iraq in a week-old war against Baghdad.

The US officials, who asked not to be identified, said plans call for inserting as many as 100,000 more US soldiers into Iraq by the end of April, bringing the total US-led force there to about 225,000.

The officials stressed that the buildup was not new but part of a long-developed war plan.

Among the reinforcements will be the 4th Infantry Division from Texas, 1st Armored Division from Germany and 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment from Colorado.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied today that the Pentagon had changed its war plan and was rushing in forces to make up for what critics have called a major shortage of foot-soldiers and tanks to defeat Iraq's elite Republican Guards and paramilitary troops loyal to Saddam.

"It's a good plan and it was designed in a way that forces would continue to flow over a sustained period," he told reporters following a hearing in the Senate.

"Every day the number of coalition forces in Iraq is increasing by one or two or three thousand people, and it is going to continue to do that -- and we have plenty of forces en route," he added.

The 4th Infantry Division was earlier scheduled to go to Turkey, but Ankara refused to agree to US troop-basing and movement through the country to set up a northern front.

Instead, the first units of the division, one of the most modern in the Army, began moving on Thursday from Fort Hood, Texas, to Kuwait to join its M-1A2 tanks and other equipment. That flow will include at least 30,000 troops, including support units.

The 1st Armored Division of nearly 20,000 troops and tanks is also beginning to move to the region from Germany and the highly mobile 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment will begin to go this weekend from Fort Collins, Colorado.

Rumsfeld and America's top military officer also defended the US war plans in Iraq earlier this week amid criticism from many experts who question the size and punch of the invasion force being used.

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the US strategy "a brilliant plan" that has thrust invading troops more than 200 miles into Iraqi territory -- "on the doorstep of Baghdad" -- in a week of hostilities.

But analysts told Reuters US military leaders may have erred in using an invasion force that is too small and not packing enough armour while leaving critical forces at home.

They also questioned why ground troops were rushed into Iraq without allowing US and British air power first to clobber Iraqi military targets, why Pentagon officials assumed Iraq's military would surrender in droves and why no sizable invasion force was inserted in the north despite Rumsfeld's earlier promise to "work around" the Turkey problem.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq