United States to Deploy
3,000 Troops to Middle East .
U.S. defense officials confirmed to NBC News
on Jan. 3 that approximately 3,000 additional
soldiers are being sent to the Middle East.
The deployment is reportedly
not in response to the recent
American assassination of Qassem
Soleimani, a top Iranian general. .
Instead, the deployment is a
continuation of an earlier
announcement made by U.S.
Defense Secretary, Mark Esper. .
He called the decision an “appropriate and
precautionary” response to the Jan. 1 attack
on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. .
On Dec. 31, Esper said that
750 airborne troops were being
deployed immediately to the area,
with additional troops to follow.
This deployment is an appropriate and
precautionary action taken in response
to increased threat levels against U.S.
personnel and facilities, such as we witnessed
in Baghdad today. The United States will protect
our people and interests anywhere they are
found around the world, Mark Esper, via statement .
The newly deployed soldiers will come from an
infantry battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division,
which is based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. .
They will join the roughly
60,000 troops already stationed
in the Middle East, and will
stay for "some 60 days."