U.S. Extending the Tours of 21,000 Troops in Iraq

U.S. troops based in Louisiana and Germany are among 21,000 soldiers who will have their tours in Iraq extended at least three months to help combat the surging violence, defense officials said Wednesday.

The decision, which comes a week after Pentagon officials first said extensions were likely, breaks the Army’s promise to soldiers and their families that assignments in Iraq would be limited to 12 months. The affected soldiers already have been in Iraq for a year.

In addition, about 1,000 soldiers in transportation units based in Kuwait will have their tours extended beyond one year, a senior defense official said. Most of them are in the National Guard or Reserve. They are deemed crucial to resupplying the troops based in Iraq.

The top U.S. commander for the Mideast, Army Gen. John Abizaid, decided that the increase in violence was so threatening that he needed to have the extra firepower, officials said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was fine-tuning the new plan Wednesday; his spokesmen declined to discuss details.

The soldiers affected by the extension in Iraq include at least 14,000 from the 1st Armored Division, based in Germany. About 2,800 others are with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based at Ft. Polk, La.

The advantage of keeping those troops in Iraq for an extra three months -- rather than bringing in an equivalent number from elsewhere -- is that they have unmatched combat experience in Iraq.

The Army is so stretched by its commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and elsewhere that it has few, if any, forces immediately available to substitute in Iraq for the 1st Armored Division or 2nd Armored Cavalry.

Also, these units have been heavily involved in one of the most important U.S. military missions in Iraq: training thousands of Iraqi security forces.

Those Iraqi forces are central to the Pentagon’s plan for eventually turning over military control to the Iraqis and pulling out American troops.

The number of U.S. troops in Iraq is currently inflated by an ongoing rotation that was supposed to reduce the total to about 115,000 when it ended in early May.