U.S. sending thousands of Fort Bragg troops to Middle East in response to Iran threat

The U.S. is deploying around 3,500 additional soldiers from Fort Bragg, N.C., to the Middle East to protect American personnel, bases and interests after Iran promised to retaliate for the Thursday drone strike that killed one of its top generals.

The troops are from the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division Global Response Force brigade. The brigade is specialized to have its first units deploy within 18 hours in response to any threat and have the full complement of forces deploy within 96 hours.

Iran’s leader on Friday pledged retaliation against U.S. interests for the death of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, leader of the Quds Force, which has been responsible for escalating attacks against U.S. facilities and personnel in Iraq, as well as the deaths of hundreds of U.S. service members during the Iraq War.

The forces will be based in Kuwait but will be able to pivot to many of the high-tension areas in the region where the U.S. has had to defend against threats from Iranian threats, such as the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian forces have targeted container ships.

This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 1:20 PM with the headline "U.S. sending thousands of Fort Bragg troops to Middle East in response to Iran threat."

Tara Copp

McClatchy DC

Tara Copp is the national military and veterans affairs correspondent for McClatchy. She has reported extensively through the Middle East, Asia and Europe to cover defense policy and its impact on the lives of service members. She was previously the Pentagon bureau chief for Military Times and a senior defense analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office. She is the author of the award-winning book “The Warbird: Three Heroes. Two Wars. One Story.”