(CNN) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has approved a troop rotation plan that would send more than 100,000 fresh troops to Iraq early next year, Pentagon sources said. A formal announcement is expected Thursday.
The plan includes the call-up of some 40,000 National Guard and Reserve troops for one-year tours of duty in Iraq, the sources said.
In addition, several thousand Marines, not originally part of the plan, will be used to make up for the failure of the United States to get enough commitments from other countries to field a third multinational division. There are already divisions led by the Polish and British.
Pentagon officials said the plan would actually reduce the overall number of U.S. troops in Iraq, from 130,000 to close to 100,000.
101st Airborne Division troops, for example, will not be replaced one-for-one. Because they are in a calmer area around Mosul in the north, a smaller force will take over their sector, officials said.
Besides the 101st Airborne, two other divisions are scheduled to return to the United States in early 2004.
The 4th Infantry Division, headquartered in Tikrit, is to return by April. It is scheduled to be replaced by the 1st Infantry Division in Germany.
The 1st Armored Division, in Baghdad, also is scheduled to return by April and be replaced by the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. A brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division also is scheduled for rotation.
Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited the deployments Wednesday during a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee as lawmakers questioned whether U.S. forces have been stretched too thin. (Full story)
Former Iraqi generals caught in U.S. raid
Meanwhile, U.S. troops in Fallujah, Iraq, have captured two former Iraqi army generals suspected of spearheading anti-coalition fighting, coalition officials said Wednesday.
Troops from the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division captured the generals in a raid Tuesday not far from where 15 soldiers died in a helicopter crash Sunday.
The former generals are suspected of being key financiers and organizers of anti-coalition fighters operating around Fallujah, coalition officials said.
Afterward, troops from the 16th Infantry Regiment, attached to the division, found an array of ammunition, including 225 rounds of 60 mm mortar ammunition, 20 rocket-propelled grenades and 100 rounds of .50-caliber machine gun ammunition, officials said.
Elsewhere, soldiers from Task Force Ironhorse, led by the 4th Infantry Division, found a cache of explosives, weapons, ammunition and a grenade launcher in a raid on a building in Hadid thought to be a safe house for people suspected of mortar attacks.
Also Wednesday, three 82nd Airborne soldiers on patrol were wounded when they came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades near Ramadi, west of Baghdad, according to coalition officials.
A soldier from the 1st Armored Division died Tuesday from a "nonhostile" gunshot wound at a Baghdad checkpoint, coalition officials said.
Two U.S. soldiers injured in Sunday's deadly helicopter crash said Wednesday that they did not see what hit the chopper at the time but only heard a loud noise. "I heard a loud boom sound, and after I heard the sound, I closed my eyes and I prayed," said Sgt. Christopher Nelson from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where he is receiving treatment for a fractured ankle and hip. (Full story)
Other developments
• The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz arrived home in San Diego, California, Wednesday after completing an eight-month deployment for the war in Iraq. More than 10,000 people waved flags and homemade signs to welcome the sailors back to North Island Naval Air Station. Among the 6,000 people on board were at least 85 new fathers, who got a chance to see their children for the first time. (Full story)
• Jalal Talabani, interim Iraqi Governing Council president, will visit Turkey soon in an effort to defuse tensions between the council and Iraq's northern neighbor over possible deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq. Talabani, who announced the trip at a news conference Wednesday, will travel to Iran and other neighboring countries.
• The Iraqi National Museum has recovered two more prominent items stolen during the battle for Baghdad, including a 660-pound (300-kilogram) bronze statue found in a cesspool, museum and security officials said Wednesday. Three people were arrested in a sting operation to recover the second artifact, a 2,800-year-old, chariot-shaped charcoal heater believed to have been used by Assyrian kings.
• In a speech Wednesday to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona warned the Bush administration against allowing domestic politics to hasten a "premature military drawdown" in Iraq, saying that pulling out too soon would embolden terrorists and endanger American leadership in the world. "It would be the most serious American defeat on the global stage since Vietnam," said McCain, a Vietnam veteran who was held for years as a prisoner of war. He also criticized Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for suggesting it is up to the Iraqi people to defeat the insurgents. "Hastily trained Iraqi security forces cannot be expected to accomplish what U.S. forces have not succeeded in doing," he said.
CNN's Jamie McIntyre and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.
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