WASHINGTON — The United States has ordered about 2,000 soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to begin moving to the Middle East to give President Trump additional military options even as he weighs a new diplomatic initiative with Iran, Defense Department officials said on Tuesday. The combat forces would come from the division’s “Immediate Response Force,” a brigade of about 3,000 soldiers capable of deploying anywherein the world within 18 hours. The contingent includes Maj. Gen. Brandon R. Tegtmeier, the division commander, and dozens of his staff members, as well as two battalions, each with about 800 soldiers, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. More of the brigade’s soldiers could be sent in the coming days, the officials said. Taken together with some 4,500 Marines already en route to the region, the deployment of the elite Army forces brings the total number of additional ground troops dispatched to the war zone since the conflict started to nearly 7,000, and marks a new escalation in the conflict. About 50,000 troops are assigned to the overall operation the Pentagon calls Epic Fury, from across the Middle East, Europe and the United States. It is unclear where the Army paratroopers will go in the Middle East, but the location would be within striking distance of Iran, the officials said. US Army’s 82nd division can deploy anywhere in the world in 18 hours from its base in North Carolina, maintaining what is called an Immediate Response Force (IRF) capability. That capability was tested in 2021 when elements of the division were sent to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, to assist in evacuations as the US government shut down operations in the country. The division has three combat teams of about 4,000 troops each, an aviation brigade with attack, transport and cargo helicopters, an artillery unit, a logistics brigade, and its headquarters battalion. The 82nd Infantry Division was formed during and fought in World War I but was demobilized when the war ended. The military brought it back shortly after the beginning of World War II, and in August 1942 it became the Army’s first airborne division and fought in some of the most important campaigns of the war, including the invasion of Normandy in 1944. Since World War II, the 82nd Airborne has seen combat in Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as operations against ISIS around the Middle East. — Agencies
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