Pentagon: Troop levels hit all-time high of 162,000

Above: An Iraqi man waits while U.S. soldiers search his home in the Adhamiyah district of Baghdad in July.

US troop levels in Iraq have hit their highest point of the more than four year old war, with the numbers swelling to nearly 162,000 because of overlapping unit rotations, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the number surpassed the previous high water mark in the war, about 161,000 troops in January 2005 after national elections.

"There is no change to the level effort and combat power that we are projecting into Iraq. The 20 combat brigade and the associated combat services and combat support that are required to sustain that level remains constant," he said.

"What has changed today with the numbers spiking a little bit is due to just the normal flow of forces in and out," he said.

Read the rest at Yahoo News