SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2003
US military plans more mobile force in Iraq
AP
BAGHDAD: A top US military official in Iraq on Saturday said that the US was boosting the number of infantry soldiers in Iraq and moving from a force based on tanks and heavy armoured vehicles to one specialising in urban assault raids, using lighter vehicles and intelligence.
Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez told reporters at the Baghdad convention centre that a new phase in the Iraq war, known as Iraqi Freedom II, would begin as current forces were rotated out of Iraq and replaced by new US units.
"We are going to change the composition of our forces," Sanchez said. "We'll have more infantry. We're moving to a more mobile force, one that has the right blend of light and heavy."
"What we're in search of is a very mobile, very flexible, lethal force that can accomplish its mission," he said. "Those terms are dictated by the enemy."
Sanchez said that he saw no need for an overall increase in US forces in Iraq, and the number of troops overall would decrease as transportation, logistics and communications personnel were sent home.
Sanchez further said that those troops were being replaced by civilian contractors, in the case of transportation and logistics. The US military was moving toward using commercial sources for communications, he added.
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