WASHINGTON — The Defense Department announced Monday that it will send seven combat brigades to Iraq by the end of the year.
The 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Carson, is among those being deployed.
The military also alerted four National Guard Army brigades, or roughly 14,000 service members, to prepare for deployments to Iraq beginning next spring. A fifth National Guard brigade, Vermont’s 86th Brigade Combat Team, is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in the spring of 2010, the Pentagon announced.
Those National Guard brigades and the roughly 25,000 active-duty soldiers will replace brigades finishing their deployments in Iraq. In addition, the military said a headquarters division, the 25th Division, will deploy this fall.
Currently, there are 17 brigades, or roughly 155,000 service members, in Iraq.
