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