WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - Some 13,000 National Guard troops have been alerted that they are likely to deploy to Iraq from the end of this year, the Pentagon said on Monday in its latest move to staff the war with a stretched-thin military. The four brigades of part-time soldiers would take over from units currently in Iraq when their tours of duty end, and some may go back sooner than their usual break between tours, the Pentagon said. Strained by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has called on reservists to help it fight and has been unable to stick to its goals on the amount of time troops get to spend at home between deployments. A Pentagon spokesman said that some of the Guard soldiers, part of the U.S. military's reserve component, may face deployment well before the target of five years at home for every year they are mobilized. But the spokesman said some two-thirds of the soldiers had not previously been deployed. "These reserve units are not scheduled to begin deployment until December 2007. They are receiving alert orders now in order to provide them the maximum time to complete their preparations," a Pentagon statement said. Last week, the Pentagon said it would send about 4,500 active duty troops to Iraq before they had spent even a year back at home. The goal for active duty troops is two years at home for every one year deployed. Officials also disclosed deployment of the Guard troops was being contemplated. The Guard units affected by Monday's announcement are the 9th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from Little Rock, Arkansas, the 45th Infantry Brigade of Oklahoma City, the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from Indianapolis and the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of Columbus, Ohio. The United States has some 145,000 troops in Iraq and about 12 percent of those are members of the Guard.
