U.S. Troops In Iraq Under Operation New Dawn

49,700 U.S. troops remain in Iraq as part of Operation New Dawn, which was announced in President Obama’s speech ending formal combat operations in Iraq. The six remaining U.S. Army units in the country were redesignated Advise and Assist Brigades. The 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division is in Camp Falcon just outside of Baghdad. The 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division is stationed at Camp Marez, which is part of the Mosul Airport in Ninewa province. The 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division is at Camp Kalsu in Iskandiriya, Babil. The 4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division is deployed at Camp Ramadi in Anbar province. The 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division is at the Talil Airbase in Nasiriyah, Dhi Qar, while the 2nd Stryker Brigade, 25th Infantry Division is at Camp Warhorse in Baquba, Diyala. Each one of these units was given special training for their new mission before they deployed to Iraq, which will focus upon advising the Iraqi forces and providing security for U.S. personnel. The 1st Brigade for example, has small groups of advisers with each of the six Iraqi Army divisions in Baghdad province, and provides helicopter, intelligence, and forensic support to their Iraqi counterparts. 4,500 Special Forces soldiers remain in Iraq as well, along with U.S. troops at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, accompanying the Provincial Reconstruction Teams, and manning checkpoints in northern Iraq with Iraqi and peshmerga forces. There are also U.S. personnel training the Iraqi Navy in Basra, and two aviation combat brigades. In total, these forces are spread across 92 bases, 58 of which are jointly occupied by Iraqi troops. 

Source: Institute for the Study of War

  Map showing the location of the 6 U.S. Advise and Assist Brigades in Iraq (Click on image for larger view)

The change in the name of the operation in Iraq and the brigades deployed there is more than just semantics. In the last year or two Iraqi insurgents and Special Groups have shifted their tactics to focusing upon the Iraqi Army, police, and Sons of Iraq instead of directly targeting Americans. While U.S. forces still come under fire and there are still deaths in Iraq, like a soldier killed in Tikrit by a sniper on August 31 and two more killed by an Iraqi soldier in Tuz Kharmato on September 7, most of this is indirect from rockets, mortars, and IEDs. That means the remaining U.S. soldiers can mostly focus upon working with Iraqi units and providing protection for U.S. civilians, which is the emphasis of Operation New Dawn rather than combat. Their next major hurtle will be whether the Status of Forces Agreement will be amended to allow them to stay past the December 31, 2011 deadline for all American forces to be out of Iraq.

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