The US military is considering sending hundreds of soldiers from a force held in reserve in Kuwait into Iraq to provide extra security as Iraq prepares to seat a new government, a defence official said on Friday.
The soldiers are from a "call-forward" force trained, ready and available in Kuwait for rapid reaction to problems in Iraq or for use to bolster security for certain milestones, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made.
The official said commanders are considering sending an Army battalion task force to Baghdad and surrounding areas to augment security.
The move would duplicate one made in March when the United States sent about 650 soldiers into Iraq from a brigade of the 1st Armoured Division in Kuwait. Those soldiers remain in Iraq as part of a US force numbering about 133,000 troops.
"There probably will be a pending troop movement," the official said.
American casualties have risen in April and May after months of decline, and US officials have forecast an increase in violence to coincide with the seating of the new Iraqi government.
Army Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the No 2 US general and the top operational commander in Iraq, told reporters at the Pentagon from Iraq on Friday that sectarian violence in Iraq had increased in the last two weeks.
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