The US military said today it had activated nearly 17,000 more reserve troops in its build-up to a war in Iraq, bringing the total number of reservists on active duty to more than 111,000.
The latest mobilisation means that nearly 10 per cent of the total of about 1.2 million US reservists now have been summoned to active duty. In the past three weeks alone, more than 52,700 reserve troops have been activated.
The announcement came as the United States continued to assemble a large military force in the Gulf region for a possible invasion of Iraq. Many reservists are heading to the Gulf region along with more than 100,000 US regular troops, ships and warplanes.
The US Defense Department said 16,979 additional reservists had been called to active duty in the past week, bringing the total Reserve and National Guard troops on active duty to 111,603.
The announcement came a day after the military said F-117A "Nighthawk" stealth fighters from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico had been sent for possible use against Iraq, and that the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt had started sailing toward the Gulf from the waters off Puerto Rico.