The United States is sending about 800 soldiers from a force held in reserve in Kuwait into Iraq to help provide extra security during a Shi'ite mourning ritual later this month, officials said today.
The soldiers come from a battalion of the 1st Armored Division currently in Kuwait, said an Army official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deployment has not been officially announced.
The official said the soldiers' deployment in Iraq would be temporary and would not exceed "probably about 30 to 45 days."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had said yesterday that ahead of the Shi'ite religious holiday Arbain, Army Gen. George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, "may decide he wants to bulk up slightly" for the ceremony.
Shi'ites Muslims mark Arbain early next week, and the focus of the ceremonies is the Shi'ite holy city Kerbala, 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Baghdad.
The United States has about 133,000 troops in Iraq, the Pentagon said.
The official said Iraqi security forces will remain in the lead in providing security, as they had during the recent increase in violence following last month's bombing of a key Shi'ite shrine in Samarra.
"I think it's safe to say that anywhere where there's a large presence of celebrants or religious events, that those are potential targets. And you can discount recent violence targeting Iraqi civilians at religious activities," the official said.
For three votes last year, the United States boosted its troop presence in order to provide extra security. Pentagon officials said US-trained Iraqi security forces were taking the lead in each occasion and US forces were a backup.
The Pentagon has a "call-forward" force of thousands of soldiers available in Kuwait for rapid-reaction to problems in Iraq or for use to bolster security for certain milestones, officials said.
Insurgents, believed to be primarily Sunni Muslims, in the past have attacked Shi'ites and Shi'ite sites. Shi'ites make up the majority in Iraq but were oppressed under Sunni leader Saddam Hussein, deposed by the US-led invasion in 2003.