The number of U.S. troops in Iraq has rose to nearly 162,000, a new high in the war of more than four years, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The record was a result of new units having arrived to replace existing ones which have not left, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
"What has changed today with the numbers spiking a little bit is due to just the normal flow of forces in and out," he said.
Whitman said there was "no change to the level of effort and the combat power that we are projecting into Iraq," and that the U. S. troop levels would remain at the 20 combat brigades and their support units.
New U.S. troops rotating into Iraq usually work alongside with those to be replaced for some time, as part of the regular rotations.
The previous high was 161,000 in January 2005 when national elections were held in Iraq, said Whitman.
According to the spokesman, the number U.S. forces, including the nearly 30,000 additional soldiers President George W. Bush sent into Iraq as part of his "surge" plan this year, would be around 156,000 or 157,000 if no units were moving in or out.
Over 3,600 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the country since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
Source: Xinhua
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