US to deploy 100,000 more troops, Wallace expects "longer" war

U.S. military officials say they are sending an additional 100,000 troops to the Persian Gulf to reinforce the coalition force operating in Iraq.

The additional soldiers and marines are expected to be in place by the end of April. Currently, there are more than 250,000 U.S.,British, and Australian troops deployed in the Gulf region.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army's senior ground commander in Iraq has hinted at why the U.S. is sending so many more troops to the Gulf.

In an interview published in the Washington Post, Lieutenant General William S. Wallace said U.S. forces had not expected the sort of guerilla-style tactics that they have been faced with in Iraq. And he admitted that it was beginning to look like the war would last much longer than some military planners had forecast.

Near Basra, Iraq: British military interrogators claim captured Iraqi soldiers have told them that al-Qaeda terrorists are fighting on the side of Saddam Hussein's forces against allied troops near Basra.


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