Some 3,500 soldiers are due to return to the United States in the coming weeks after spending the past 14 months in Iraq as part of President Bush’s “surge” of additional troops to combat the violence.

The move is in line with a plan to reduce the number of US forces in the country to the pre-surge level of about 140,000 by the end of July from a peak of 170,000 last October.

It comes despite an increase in attacks in recent weeks. One US soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack by insurgents in Nineveh province, northern Iraq, today, the military said.

The 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, part of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, will redeploy to Fort Benning in Georgia, the military said in a statement.

The unit, one of five that were deployed as part of the surge, has been operating on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad in a rural area called Mada’in Qada, which is home to some 120,000 people.

Washington sent about 30,000 extra troops to Baghdad and the city’s hostile surrounding belts last year to help stem the bloodshed by pushing into former no-go areas and holding the ground alongside the Iraqi security forces.

The surge, along with a decision by Sunni militants to side with the US military against al-Qaeda and a ceasefire by the al-Mahdi army militia loyal to the anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has achieved a significant drop in attacks.

Bombings, rocket attacks and gun fights, have picked up over the past few weeks, however, underscoring the fragility of the gains. In addition the al-Mahdi army ceasefire has appeared to weaken amid the mounting hostilities.

In particular, US and Iraqi forces have been engaged in daily clashes with Shia militiamen in the Baghdad Shia slum of Sadr City since the end of March.

General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, has recommended a 45-day pause following the drawdown of troops to 140,000 to reassess the situation before making any decisions on further redeployments.

Brigadier-General Dan Allyn said in a statement: “The continued drawdown of surge brigades demonstrates continued progress in Iraq. After July, commanders will assess our security posture for about 45 days and determine future force requirements based on these conditions-based assessments.”

The issue of troop-levels is set to become a key topic in the US Presidential elections this November.

The death of the US soldier today takes the number of US troops to die in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to more than 4,070.

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