More Than 3,000 Troops Expected to be Sent to Kuwait

Senior U.S. defense officials say the Pentagon is expected to send more than 3,000 troops into Kuwait to be ready for use in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates must sign off on the deployment. The move could be part of a short-term surge of U.S. troops to quell the ongoing violence in Iraq.

Reports say the troops would likely come from Fort Bragg in the southern state of North Carolina.

Gates spent three days in Iraq last week speaking with U.S. military commanders and Iraqi leaders about strategies for reducing the violence. He has not said whether he will recommend a temporary increase in U.S. troop levels.

In the latest violence, car bombings and roadside explosions killed nearly 40 people in Baghdad Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of six more American soldiers. This raises the U.S. death toll in Iraq to 2,978.

That is more than the number of people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S.