US to boost its Iraq force by 12,000

WASHINGTON -- Amid growing concerns about the stability of Iraq, the Pentagon yesterday announced that it will boost the number of troops there to the highest level since the start of the war, as US-led ground forces continue attacking insurgents while attempting to secure polling places in time for January elections.

The decision to increase the number of troops in Iraq from 138,000 to 150,000 means that 1,500 members of the elite 82d Airborne Division will be spending the holidays on the front lines instead of at their home base at Fort Bragg, N.C., and 10,400 soldiers and Marines who were expecting to rotate out of the war-torn nation will instead see their tours of duty extended by as long as 60 days. For 3,500 soldiers from the Army's First Cavalry Division, it will be the second time their tour was extended since October.

The Bush administration had originally predicted that by this time the number of US troops in Iraq would be well under 100,000, but violence there has been escalating. In November, 135 American troops were killed, matching April for the highest monthly total.

Military leaders who spoke on condition they not be named acknowledged that the third extension of Army tours in Iraq was expected to draw a new round of complaints that the service was stretching troops and their families too thin, but they said temporarily pushing troop levels to 150,000 was essential to combating insurgent forces who are determined to undermine the new Iraqi government.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld approved the request from top ground commander General George W. Casey after strategists concluded that the American troops and estimated 115,000 newly trained Iraqi security forces were not enough to protect polling places and continue the offensive against insurgents that began last month when US and Iraqi forces stormed the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, officials said yesterday.

''The purpose is mainly to provide security for the election, but it is also to keep up the pressure on the insurgency in the wake of the Fallujah operation," Army Brigadier General David M. Rodriguez, deputy director for regional operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon.

Rumsfeld and President Bush have warned on that the period leading up to the Iraq elections could see even more attacks on coalition troops and Iraqis. Military officials have said for months that more troops would be needed to secure the Iraqi elections.

But Army General John P. Abizaid, head of the US Central Command, had expressed hope in October that new Iraqi troops would be able to fill the gap and that more US forces would not be necessary. Iraqi police and soldiers are still being trained, and military commanders concluded that they had to send more US reinforcements.

Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, a critic of the administration's handling of the war, said the Pentagon's announcement confirmed that the effort to stabilize Iraq would take years, with no certainty of success.

''This announcement makes it clear that commanders in Iraq need more troops and that this will be a long and very expensive process for the United States," Reed said. ''It is still not clear whether Iraq will emerge from this chronic violence as a viable and stable country."

All of the 8,100 Army troops whose tours are being extended will end up serving either 13 or 14 months before they return home, beyond the 10 to 12 months they expected. Meanwhile, the 2,300 Marines ordered to remain longer will be overseas for more than nine months, two months longer than the normal Marine Corps tour, Pentagon officials said.

The 1,500 soldiers from the 82d Airborne will arrive in Iraq by the middle of this month and are from the same division that beefed up US forces for Afghanistan's national elections in October.

The troops whose tours have been extended include: 4,400 soldiers from the Second Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, based in Hawaii; 3,500 soldiers from the First Cavalry Division, headquartered in Texas; 2,300 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, from bases in Okinawa, California, and Hawaii; and 160 members of the Army's 66th Transportation Company in Germany. They were informed of the decision Tuesday, officials said.

For the Second Brigade of the First Cavalry Division, the extension comes after their original 10-month deployment had been extended once. ''They were supposed to be coming out in November, and then when we extended in the first time, for two months, they were supposed to come out Jan. 12th," Rodriguez said. They will now come home at the end of February or early March.

But the soldiers who have spent considerable time in Iraq are best suited to help ensure the Iraqi elections, planned for Jan. 30, can be as successful as possible, Pentagon officials said.

''They're the ones who know the ground best, who have worked with the people closest," said Rodriguez.

Earlier this fall the Pentagon extended the tours of the First Cavalry unit as well as 3,000 soldiers from the First Infantry Division and Second Armored Division.

Earlier in the year it extended the tours of 1,500 soldiers from a dozen units, igniting complaints from soldiers' and their families enduring frequent deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the wider war on terrorism.

Officials said yesterday that they would try to ensure that those soldiers whose tours are extended will remain at their home base for at least as long as they were deployed once they rotate back from overseas.

Senior military officials said yesterday they have not yet seen any impact from extended tours on the military's ability to keep veteran soldiers in the ranks.

''For the obvious reasons, we're monitoring that very closely," said Brigadier General Robert B. Neller, the Marine Corps' director of operations.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.