According to The Military Times, most of the deployments will take place next week. Some soldiers will go to Baghdad while others will "act as a response force to regional threats," the Times reported.
Defense officials told NBC News the planned deployment was not a direct response to threats made in the wake of a U.S. airstrike early Friday morning that claimed the life of Iran's Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani had headed the country's elite Quds Force.
After Soleimani's death, he was remembered by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the "international face of resistance." Khamenei warned a" harsh retaliation is waiting" for the U.S. in light of the airstrike and declared three days of public mourning for Soleimani’s death.
The airstrike was ordered by President Donald Trump because Soleimani “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” according to the Defense Department. The strike marked a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Iran, which has careened from one crisis to another since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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