BAGHDAD,
July 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The U.S. Army 3rd
Infantry Division would stay in Iraq indefinitely as the American
forces brace for more attacks in the war-battered country.
"They
will tie up their boot straps and continue to move on," a senior
American military official confirmed Tuesday, July 15.
Speaking
on condition of anonymity, he argued the extension of their tour,
which had been expected to end by September, was linked to a surge in
attacks on U.S. troops, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The
process in sending units home is ... not on a timeline," the
official told AFP.
"Sometimes
you move through the timeline quickly. Sometimes you don't."
The
Division Commander General Buford C Blount III, announced last week
that two brigade combat teams - about 9,000 soldiers - would be
returning to their home bases in the U.S. by late summer.
But
in an e-mail to spouses this week, he said they would be staying in
place indefinitely "due to the uncertainty of the situation in
Iraq and the recent increase in attacks on the coalition forces,"
according to the BBC News Online.
There
was no immediate confirmation of the extended deployment from the U.S.
forces on the ground in Iraq.
Dismayed
The
extension decision also caused dismay among families of the affected
soldiers.
"Don't
do that to us. Don't pull our heartstrings that way," one army
wife said after being informed her husband's tour of duty had been
extended.
Julie
Galloway's husband, Sergeant Michael Galloway, was sent to the Gulf in
November.
The
BBC correspondent in Baghdad says it is very difficult to find a U.S.
soldier who likes being in Iraq.
Burdened
by their equipment and armor in the heat, they know they are not
welcome, he added.
Often
vulnerable and exposed on the streets, U.S. troops are sitting ducks
for jeering Iraqis furious over a slow pace of improvement in the
war-battered country and the U.S. military provocations.
Two
political analysts interviewed by CNN said the extension decision was
"devastating" to troop morale as the division, which at its
peak had 16,500 troops in Iraq, has been on duty since the start of
the U.S.-led war on March 20.
According
to a CNN tally, 37 soldiers from the 3rd Army Division have been
killed during the Iraq invasion, more than in any other U.S. military
division.
On
Alert
In
the meanwhile, the U.S. troops stationed at the entrance to the mainly
Shiite Muslim town of Al-Miqdadiya, 100 kilometers (60 miles)
northeast of Baghdad, were on the alert Tuesday and expecting an
attack.
"We
have had five attacks in the last few days, including one suicide
attack on a bicycle," U.S. Army Sergeant Tony Stewart told AFP at
a roadblock on the road leading into the town of 300,000 people.
The
attack, Stewart said, happened Sunday but around 100 meters (330 ft)
from the roadblock, where traffic is monitored by armed Iraqi police
and paramilitaries.
North
of the town in the U.S. base, Lieutenant Pete Rachal said there had
been "a lot of activity" against American forces.
"We
were attacked last night and we responded to the fire," Rachal
said. "There were no American casualties. I don't know about the
other side."
