WASHINGTON, February 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The United States Defense Department ordered 20,000 troops be deployed to the Arab Gulf region as part of preparations for a possible military aggression against Iraq.

The Pentagon's order brought the number of U.S troops in the Gulf to 200,000, military officials said, according to Swissinfo website on Tuesday, February 19.

The U.S Army 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment was included in the deployment order which has been signed in recent days, the officials said.

The "highly mobile" regiment, based at Fort Carson in Colorado, includes 5,200 soldiers and can be used in defensive and offensive operations as well as reconnaissance and security functions.

Nicknamed "Brave Rifles", the 3d Army Regiment took part in the 1991 Gulf War and pushed over 185 miles into southern Iraq in 100 hours in the "left hook" movement during the brief ground phase of the Gulf War, said the Website.

Bren Workman, a spokesman at Fort Carson, said the regiment drove over 300 kilometers and destroyed three Iraqi Republican Guards divisions.

The U.S. has now about 182,000 soldiers in and near the Gulf in the event that President George W. Bush issue orders to attack Iraq.

The regiment has more than 300 armored vehicles, including M 1A1 Abrams tanks and M3A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 80 aircraft including Apache helicopter gunships.

Thousands of U.S. troops were sent to the Gulf region last week on commercial airplanes as U.S. officials said nearly 200,000 American troops could be in place by early March 2003.

Tens of thousands of more forces would leave for the region in the coming weeks.

U.S. President George W. Bush has repeatedly said that Saddam Hussein would be disarmed one way or another, despite the massive anti-war protests spanning many cities all over the world in a firm "no" to war threats.

But U.S. forces kept deployed around Iraq, a step that left war momentum higher.