American troop numbers hit an all time high of 162,000 this week, but Pentagon claimed that this was due to a an "artificial spike”, denying reports that the United States assigning more troops to the conflict.
The last time there were more than 160,000 US troops in Iraq was during stepped-up security operations for the January 2005 election, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters today.
Whitman said that all deploying and redeploying units have a “right-seat, left-seat" overlap time so the new unit can learn from the previous one.
The process which takes a few weeks sees new units coming into the area ride along with the unit they are relieving sitting in the right seat to observe operations, and after the familiarization, the new unit gets in the left seat and the relieving unit observes.
The number of American troops will drop to between 155,000 and 157,000 once this process is completed, Whitman said.
Whitman said Pentagon officials will continue to watch developments in Basra, where violence has increased as British troops started leaving the city.
“Any time we see a spike in violence in any particular area, the coalition has concerns,” Whitman said. “Commanders have flexibility to address the security situation.”
Whitman said enemy fighters were trying to exploit transitions of the security mission from coalition to Iraqi forces.
“There’s always the risk as you turn over responsibilities, that the enemy could see that as a seam and try to take advantage of that,” he said.
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