Marine, Army units in California, Texas to leave in December

WASHINGTON — Nearly 20,000 U.S. troops based in the United States will begin departing for Iraq in December as part of the regular rotation of combat forces there, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

These Army and Marine Corps units are not related to the buildup of American troops announced by President Bush in January, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Scheduled to deploy later this year and early in 2008 are the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Marine Regimental Combat Teams One and Five, also out of Camp Pendleton; and the 3rd Brigade of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

"These forces are replacement forces for the level of effort of 15 combat brigades, which was the standing level of effort prior to the surge," Whitman said. "They are not forces identified to replace surge forces."

The surge brought the number of combat brigades in Iraq to 20. Each combat brigade has roughly 3,500 troops.

Whitman would not say what units would be replaced.

There are 159,000 U.S. forces in Iraq. Those levels could vary between now and December depending on ongoing reviews by Army Gen. David Petraeus and other top commanders in Iraq.

Petraeus is scheduled to deliver a report to Congress in September on the impact the surge has had.

Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, the Bush administration's nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told the Senate Armed Services Committee that if confirmed he will immediately "go to the theater in order to more clearly understand conditions on the ground."

The Army troops will deploy for 15 months. The Marine combat teams typically spend seven months overseas and the headquarters unit will be deployed for a year.