The US commander in Iraq confirmed Saturday that a 3,700-strong contingent of American combat troops equipped with armoured fighting vehicles is to be brought into Baghdad.
General George Casey said the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, an Alaska-based unit which has just completed a 12-month tour in northern Iraq, would be deployed to stem a wave of violence in the strife-torn capital.
"This will place our most experienced unit with our most mobile and agile systems in support of our main effort in Baghdad at a decisive time," said Casey, the leader of coalition forces in Iraq, in a statement.
"With the rest of the elements of the plan, this gives us a potentially decisive capability to affect security in Baghdad in the near term," he said.
Baghdad is in the grip of a surge in sectarian violence between rival death squads and militias drawn from the city's Shiite majority and its Sunni neighbours, and Iraqi government forces are struggling to cope.
Earlier this week, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the 172nd Brigade's tour of duty would be extended by 120 days, allowing commanders to increase US troop numbers in theatre to around 130,000.
The unit — nicknamed the "Arctic Wolves" — is equipped with the "Stryker," a wheeled light armoured car regarded as nimble enough for fighting in cities but with a greater degree of protection than the Humvee utility vehicle.
US officers would not be drawn on when exactly the brigade would arrive in the city, for security reasons.
There are already around 7,000 US troops deployed to maintain security in the capital and support Iraqi forces.
