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The United States is deploying more troops, including its high-tech 4th Infantry Division and some other units, to the Gulf region to join the on-going war with Iraq, the US military said Wednesday.
"The 4th Infantry Division has received orders to move and will be going in the coming days," Dan Hassett, a spokesman at Ford Hood, Texas, was quoted as saying.
The division, with a total strength of some 16,000 troops, is based at Ford Hood and has been waiting for about two months for deployment in Turkey, where the Pentagon planned to open a second front in war with Iraq.
But the deployment was aborted after Turkey's parliament rejected a government bill in early March to allow use of Turkish soil by US troops.
Ships carrying the division's heavy equipment, including over 200 tanks and other military vehicles, have been diverted from waters off Turkey to Kuwait, where the US military launched ground campaign toward Baghdad six days ago.
Meanwhile, some other military unity totaling about 14,000 troops have also received orders to move with the division, Hassett said.
The reinforcement will bring the total US military presence in the Gulf region to about 280,000 troops.
(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2003)
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