Some 17,000 US troops are already in place. A further 11,000 troops are due to arrive in the next few weeks. About 2,100 Marines have also been deployed.

The majority of ordinary troops are housed in a number of vast desert encampments – the Kabals – in the north of the country close to the Iraqi border.

Ali al-Salem airforce base is an important staging point for US and British planes patrolling the skies of southern Iraq.