The U.S. Army announced on Friday it was dispatching some 2,600 troops to Iraq earlier than planned, raising the number of extra American soldiers being deployed in a new effort to stabilize the country to nearly 30,000.
The combat aviation brigade from the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division would deploy in early May, some 45 days sooner than previously envisaged, the Army said, according to Reuters. The brigade is the third element in a package of support units being deployed to assist 21,500 extra combat troops ordered to deploy in Iraq under a plan unveiled by President George W. Bush earlier this year.
There are more than 140,000 U.S. troops already fighting in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr decried U.S. forces as occupiers Friday and called on his followers to "shout 'No, No America!'"
Thousands of Shiites flooded from the mosque where al-Sadr's statement was read by a preacher at Friday prayers, spilling into the streets of the Sadr City slum to protest the two-week-old US military presence there.
"The occupiers want to harm this beloved (Sadr City) and tarnish its name by spreading false rumors and allegations that negotiations and cooperation are ongoing between you and them," the statement said. "I am confident that you will not make concessions to them and will remain above them. Raise your voices in love and brotherhood and unity against your enemy and shout 'No, No America!"
