Stages of US military presence in Iraq

The security agreement approved by the government on Monday over the US presence in the country for the three coming years aims to define the bilateral relation between Washington and Baghdad regardless of UN Charter Chapter VII and relevant Security Council resolutions after 2003 war which resulted of deploying around 160,000 US soldiers and more than 28,000 troops from 30 different countries around Iraq.
Violence increase in the country between 2004 and 2006 has pushed the Democratic Party to adopt Baker-Hamilton recommendations in 2006 which called mainly to reduce 143,000 US troops back then and change their mission from combat to support. However, Bush’s response came quick at the end of January 2007 in which he announced that the US success in Iraq requires a shift of strategy to help Iraqis fight terrorism and ascertain security in the capital which calls for troop surge.
Accordingly, Bush ordered to deploy 28,500 soldiers as part of a new strategy.
Following partial withdrawals, the US military in Iraq includes presently 152,000 troops deployed in more than 400 bases in Iraq. Major deployment of US soldiers is located in Baghdad where 31,000 soldiers are stationed in addition to military units from Macedonia, Estonia, Bosnia and Albania. These forces work in cooperation with 48,000 Iraqi soldiers and around 23,000 policemen.
25,000 US soldiers are deployed in northern Iraq mainly in Mosul and Diyala. As in the West, 28,000 US marines are deployed in Anbar province along with 37,000 of national security forces. The US military is deployed as well in southern Iraq in exception for Basra where 4000 British troops are deployed.

Source: www.alsumaria.tv