U.S. troop levels in Iraq to fall by 5,000 next month

U.S. military officials said Saturday that overall American troop levels in Iraq would drop by about 5,000 next month when a combat brigade completed its withdrawal.

The U.S. Army’s 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry, which has been operating primarily in the country’s volatile eastern Diyala province, will be the first of five brigades to depart Iraq without being replaced over the next several months, officials confirmed.

The pending departure of the 3rd Brigade was announced Nov. 13, but the number of soldiers had been reported as 3,000 and the withdrawal was said to be scheduled for January.

“The redeployment without replacement reflects overall improved security within Iraq as well as the improved capability of the Iraqi security forces and the emergence of concerned local citizens,” spokesman U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said at a news conference Saturday.

This U.S. military recently announced plans to reduce troop numbers by about 20,000 by July. The current level is about 162,000 troops.

Saturday’s report detailing the planned withdrawal came a day after 13 people were killed in a bombing at a popular Baghdad pet market, which U.S. officials blamed on Iranian-backed militants. Iraqi security forces detained four people overnight Friday in connection with the attack, the officials said.

“Based on subsequent confessions, forensics and other intelligence, the bombing was the work of an Iranian-backed special groups’ cell operating here in Baghdad,” Smith said.

He emphasized that he was not suggesting that the Iranian government ordered the bombing.

“What I’m telling you is that the forces that are inside Iraq that have historically received training, funding, equipping and so forth by Iran, is the group responsible for that attack,” Smith said.

He said the group’s purpose was to “make it appear that Al Qaeda in Iraq was responsible for the attack” to convince residents of the need for militias to continue providing security. “It’s a very twisted intent . . . but we accept that to be the motivation.”

The military has been heralding figures that show civilian deaths in Baghdad are down 75% since June, when the last of an additional 28,500 American troops deployed to Iraq this year arrived. And many Iraqis have expressed hope that the recent drop in violence signals a new period of calm.

The departure from Diyala of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry, after a 15-month tour in Iraq would not mark the end of security operations in that region, U.S. military officials said.

On Tuesday, troops from the Army’s 4th Striker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, stationed near Baghdad, will begin to deploy to the region and continue to assist Iraqi forces and residents to secure the province, Smith said.

U.S. officials said the redeployment would not lessen troop levels in Diyala, but it would spread American forces thinner by sending some in Baghdad northeast to the region.

Diyala, a province that borders Iran, had been an Al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold racked by sectarian violence.

Senior U.S. commanders are watching the changes in Diyala closely to see whether security gains achieved over the last six months continue to hold.

Any increase in violence could affect how the planned withdrawals of the four additional U.S. brigades are implemented.

Col. David W. Sutherland, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry, a Ft. Hood, Texas-based unit commonly known as the Grey Wolves, said his soldiers had made substantial inroads in bringing security to Diyala.

Prior to the “surge” of troops in Diyala, which has a population of about 1.6 million, there were hundreds of significant acts of violence, including suicide attacks and abductions, Sutherland said. Such violent acts have decreased by more than 68% since April.

“Diyala is a very different province now than when we assumed control in November of last year,” he said. “The surge enabled the coalition and Iraqi security forces to dominate the terrain and secure the population. It also helped the government to function properly and begin focusing on reconstruction and essential services.”

Ibrahim Bajlan, the speaker of the Diyala provincial council, agreed that security in the region had “dramatically” improved.

“Shops have reopened and people are moving safely from one neighborhood to [another],” particularly in Baqubah, the provincial capital, Bajlan said.

But he warned, however, that violence continued on the outskirts of Baqubah.

Some in the city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad are concerned that if Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s Shiite-led government does not drop its resistance to allowing former Sunni Arab insurgents to join the Iraqi police force, they might return to the insurgency.

Sutherland said that about two-thirds of the 3,000 young men who had already volunteered to join the police in Diyala are Sunnis.

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ann.simmons@latimes.com

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Times staff writers Peter Spiegel in Washington and Saif Rasheed and Tina Susman in Baghdad and a special correspondent in Diyala province contributed to this report.