Pentagon announces 20,000 troop rotation for Iraq

WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) The US Defense Department said today another 20,000 Army soldiers and Marines will be sent to Iraq for rotation duty, with some tours scheduled to extend into early 2009.

The new deployment of 17,000 Marines and 3,000 Army soldiers is part of a routine troop rotation separate from US President George W Bush's surge strategy to stabilize Baghdad with extra forces, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

Bush's surge boosted the U.S. force level in Iraq to 20 combat brigades in June. But Whitman said the new deployment of three Marine units and one Army unit would maintain an underlying base of 15 brigades that existed before the surge.

All told, the surge has temporarily added 30,000 US troops and brought total U.S. forces to about 159,000.

''These rotations ... are not in any way associated with the current surge,'' Whitman told reporters.

''These forces have been identified to replace units and forces that would be coming out of Iraq,'' he said.

The latest deployment calls for two Marine Corps regimental combat teams from Camp Pendleton, California, to arrive in Iraq for a 12-month tour in December, the Pentagon said.

The Army's 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, would also arrive in December but for a 15-month tour of duty.

A First Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters unit from Camp Pendleton would then deploy to Iraq early next year for 12 months.

The current deployment schedule would keep the Army brigade and First Marine Expeditionary Force unit in Iraq into 2009.

Whitman said defense officials hope to reduce Army deployments from 15 months to 12 months beginning early next year.

REUTERS JT KP2250