US forces in Iraq get more tanks, armored personnel carriers

US forces in Iraq are receiving more tanks and armored personnel carriers amid the upsurge in violence in the Middle East country, a senior military official said Wednesday.

The tanks and armored carriers have either been sent or are arriving to meet requests of US Army and Marine Corps units in Iraq, Marine Major General John Sattler, operations director of the US Central Command, told reporters at the Pentagon.

The requests came from commanders of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which is operating in the Sunni Triangle west and north of Baghdad, including Fallujah, and the Army's 1st Infantry Division, which is based in Tikrit, he said by phone from the Central Command headquarters in Qatar.

The Army and Marine Corps commanders made the request when they arrived in Iraq recently and saw a deteriorated security situation there, he said.

"The security environment was moving in a very positive direction, and the need for tanks and tracked vehicles was overshadowed by the need for wheeled vehicles and warriors on the ground," he said.

The requests for more tanks and armored personnel carriers came amid concerns that the armored Humvees were not able to provide US troops with sufficient protection against attacks. Larry Ellis, commander of the Army Forces Command, said recently that Humvees equipped with extra armor were inadequate to protect US soldiers in insurgent attacks.

US forces currently have 2,750 armored Humvees in Iraq, news reports said.

Over 700 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since March 2003,more than 120 of them in the month of April alone, according to figures released by the Pentagon.

Source: Xinhua