Officials said the U.S. military was moving equipment from Iraq through
Jordan. They said the U.S. military assets were shipped from Jordan's
southern port of Aqaba in an effort to reduce traffic to Kuwait.
"Some supplies were shipped out of ports in Jordan instead of Kuwait,"
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mitchell Stevenson, deputy chief of staff G4, said.
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Officials said the U.S. military accelerated the withdrawal from Iraq
by establishing routes through neighboring states, Middle East Newsline reported. They said the equipment
that moved through Jordan was both flown and driven overland from Iraq.
"Also, we had a plan to ship out of Turkey, but we haven't needed to do
that," Stevenson said.
Officials said the U.S. military used Jordan for training and logistics
for the mission in Iraq, which now contains fewer than 50,000 American
troops. They said the U.S. military would continue to maintain a small and
unobtrusive presence in Jordan even after the pullout of all U.S. combat
troops from Iraq.
"It is not like peace has broken out and there is no threat in Iraq,"
Stevenson said. "So, we have had to be careful of redistributing too much
out of Iraq too quickly because the guys in Iraq say 'Don't forget about us,
we still have an enemy here.' "