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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Army shifting focus from Baghdad to suburbs |
| 2004-02-09 |
| Edited for brevity U.S. forces in Iraq began scaling down their presence inside Baghdad with the arrival of fresh troops who are mostly moving into bases on the city’s outskirts. Brigadier General Mark Hertling, assistant commander of the departing 1st Armored Division said the arriving 1st Cavalry Division is moving into eight bases around Baghdad, with one in the center. It is a contrast to the 26 bases in the city now and down from as many as 60 last summer just after the Iraq war. The United States has said it is shifting its troop presence to Baghdad’s perimeter to ease newly trained Iraqi police officers and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers into their eventual role as the capital’s guardians. "This is in conjunction with the stand-up of the ICDC and an improvements in the number of Iraqi police available in Baghdad," Hertling told reporters, but added there was no firm deadline for a complete turnover of Baghdad security to Iraqis. The eight bases on the outskirts of Baghdad will house between 25,000 and 30,000 troops, and will be the only U.S. presence in Baghdad after the 1st Cavalry assumes command on April 15. The 1st Cavalry Division will have a slightly larger area of operations, encompassing Baghdad and its suburbs. The 1st Armored Division was only in charge of the city. Besides handing more authority to the Iraqi forces, the U.S. has said it wants its presence to be less of an impediment to daily life in a congested city. Colonel Mike Formica, commander of the first unit to arrive from the 1st Cavalry from its home base at Fort Hood, Texas, said his troops have been shifted out of tanks into armored Humvees to better patrol city streets. "We’ll be much more mobile and much less intrusive in these neighborhoods," Formica said. "So we won’t have 70-ton tanks running through neighborhoods, destroying infrastructure we’re trying so hard to rebuild." |
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