As many as 4,000 US troops have been put on standby by the Pentagon for possible deployment to Kuwait in response to an attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad, according to the Defense Department and a report.
The paratroopers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division were told to prepare for the possible deployment in the coming days, Fox News reported, citing three unnamed US defense officials.
Approximately 750 of the troops from the Immediate Response Force in the division were deployed Tuesday evening, while the rest of the troops were preparing for deployment, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper tweeted.
“Approximately 750 #Soldiers will deploy to the region immediately & additional forces from the IRF are prepared to deploy over the next several days,” Esper wrote on Twitter.
“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,” he added.
On Tuesday morning, hundreds of supporters of an Iranian-backed militia, enraged about airstrikes in Iraq, stormed the US Embassy compound in Baghdad, forcing the evacuation of the ambassador and his staff.
The attack followed airstrikes Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Kataeb Hezbollah that the US military said were in retaliation for last week’s 36-rocket attack in which an American contractor was killed at an Iraqi base.