The U.S. military has a lot more people in Iraq than it has been saying

The Defense Department has also reversed an earlier position and are now declining to confirm how many forces are presently in Iraq, saying only that the number of officially assigned forces is below the current cap of 3,870.

“People come through on a temporary basis and go above and below the force cap all the time, but we remain under our force cap,” Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, told reporters on Monday.

But officials privately acknowledge that the total troop number, while it varies from day to day, now stands around 5,000. The more than 1,000 personnel above the official cap include the Marines in northern Iraq along with military officials handling foreign military sales and other defense cooperation matters.

Having the ability to add additional personnel, whose deployments are seen as more temporary than the force of 3,870, “gives the theater commander the ability to move forces around,” a U.S. military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues. The 3,870 troops include American trainers and advisers arrayed around the country.