US troop deployments set to keep Iraq level steady

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The Pentagon plans to send 39,000 soldiers to Iraq to replace troops scheduled to leave the war zone and to hold the total U.S. force level steady over the next year.

The deployments allow commanders to keep 15 brigade combat teams plus support personnel in Iraq through fiscal 2009, which starts in October, the Defense Department said on Monday.

"All of these forces that we're talking about today are replacement forces," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

The troops will likely be sent to Iraq starting in October.

The United States has 155,000 troops in Iraq and is in the process of cutting the number of brigade combat teams from 20 to 15 through mid-July.

At that point, Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, will halt withdrawals to assess security conditions after last year's "surge" of forces, credited with reducing violence throughout the country.

Any decision to adjust troop levels after that assessment will yield new deployment orders, Whitman said.

Among the troops scheduled to go to Iraq is a division headquarters unit, seven active-duty brigade combat teams and four Army National Guard brigades.

Since the March 2003 invasion, 4,025 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and hundreds of soldiers from other nations, along with more than 90,000 civilians. (Reporting by Kristin Roberts; Editing by John O'Callaghan)