ABU DHABI — U.S. military officials said that over the last two years U.S. Central Command in Kuwait has
reduced its troop level from 34,000 to about 15,000.
"The U.S. military footprint in Kuwait has dropped by 40 percent," Col.
Roderick Cox, chief of staff of the Coalition Forces Land Component Command,
said.
In a recent interview with the American Forces Press Service, Cox did
not provide figures, Middle East Newsline reported. He cited security reasons, but stressed that the
military in Kuwait was operating with far fewer personnel.
"We are finding better, less troop-intensive ways of doing business,"
Cox said.
The officials said many of the
soldiers deployed in Kuwait provide logistics and training for troops bound
for Iraq.
The center of the U.S. military in Kuwait has been Camp Arifjan. The
logistics base handles the arrival of equipment for American troops in Iraq
and processes soldiers on their way north.
"It is a complicated process to get the units here and marry them up
with their equipment," Cox said. "And the scale is large also."
Officials said that in 2006 about 300,000 Americans and their equipment
would be moved in and out of Kuwait. They said American troops leaving Iraq
would also be processed in Kuwait.
Kuwait, designated a major non-NATO ally of the United States, has also
served as a training ground for U.S. soldiers headed for Iraq. Central
Command has used the Udairi range in northwestern Kuwait for training in
convoy operations as well as new counter-measures against improvised
explosive devices.
"We don't want our people to see things for the first time in Iraq," Cox
said. "The range is connected in with experts in Iraq and back in the United
States to ensure service-members are receiving the best and latest
training."
Officials said the U.S. military would continue to reduce its presence
in Kuwait through 2006. They said a portion of Camp Doha in Kuwait City
would close over the next few weeks. U.S. troops would leave additional
military facilities by the end of the year.
"Kuwait is a good and gracious ally and host," Cox said. "To do this
without them would be much harder."
