Hundreds of U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea have departed for Iraq to help bolster the U.S. military presence in the war-torn country.
U.S. military authorities said some 600 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division departed from Osan air base, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Thursday.
The airlift is part of the redeployment of 3,600 American troops from South Korea to Iraq announced in May by the U.S. Defense Department.
A public affairs official of the U.S. Eighth Army said advance soldiers and others assisting in the deployment had already left the peninsula for Iraq via Kuwait over the past few days.