Pentagon is Sending About 3,000 More Active-duty Troops to US-Mexico Border

FILE PHOTO: A US military member stands near a section of the border wall between the United States and Mexico, after the visit of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A US military member stands near a section of the border wall between the United States and Mexico, after the visit of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo
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Pentagon is Sending About 3,000 More Active-duty Troops to US-Mexico Border

FILE PHOTO: A US military member stands near a section of the border wall between the United States and Mexico, after the visit of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A US military member stands near a section of the border wall between the United States and Mexico, after the visit of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo

The Pentagon is sending about 3,000 more active-duty troops to the US-Mexico border as President Donald Trump seeks to clamp down on illegal immigration and fulfill a central promise of his campaign, US officials said Saturday.
His defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has ordered elements of a Stryker brigade combat team and a general support aviation battalion for the mission, the Pentagon announced. The forces will arrive along the nearly 2,000-mile border in the coming weeks, The Associated Press reported.
The Defense Department's statement did not specify the size of the deployment, but it was put at about 3,000 by the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Strykers are medium-armored wheeled personnel carriers.
Already, about 9,200 US troops in total are at the southern border, including 4,200 deployed under federal orders and about 5,000 National Guard troops under the control of governors.
The new troops will “reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States,” the Pentagon said.
Trump is determined to expand the military’s role in his effort to shut down the border and send detained migrants back to their home countries.
Military personnel have been sent to the border almost continuously since the 1990s to help address migration, drug trafficking and transnational crime.



Russia Focusing Airstrikes on Ukraine Draft Offices to Derail Recruitment, Kyiv Says

A view shows ruins of buildings in the abandoned town of Marinka (Maryinka), which was destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows ruins of buildings in the abandoned town of Marinka (Maryinka), which was destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
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Russia Focusing Airstrikes on Ukraine Draft Offices to Derail Recruitment, Kyiv Says

A view shows ruins of buildings in the abandoned town of Marinka (Maryinka), which was destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows ruins of buildings in the abandoned town of Marinka (Maryinka), which was destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)

Russia killed two people in an airstrike on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava on Thursday and damaged a military draft office there in what Kyiv said was a concerted campaign to disrupt recruitment for its war effort.

The strike on Poltava, which also injured 47 people and caused a fire at the city's main draft office, followed a drone attack on Monday near a recruitment center in Kryvyi Rih. Both cities are regional capitals.

"We understand that their (Russian) goal is to disrupt the mobilisation process," Vitaliy Sarantsev, a spokesperson for Ukraine's ground forces, told Ukraine's public broadcaster, Reuters reported.

"But I want to say that...it is too early (for Russia) to uncork the champagne because the process is impossible to stop."

Ukraine has struggled to fend off a bigger and better-equipped Russian army, and its call-up process has been marred by reports of draft-office corruption, poor training and weak battlefield command.

Well into the fourth year of its full-scale invasion, Russia has gained ground in eastern Ukraine and repeatedly hit cities far behind the front lines with drones and missiles, while also waging a sabotage campaign there, Kyiv's domestic security agency says.

In a statement to Reuters last month, the Security Service of Ukraine said it had arrested more than 700 people since 2024 for alleged crimes that included arson attacks on troop vehicles and bombings at draft offices.

A Ukrainian security official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Russia was aiming to derail Kyiv's military call-up effort also by spreading disinformation and hacking recruitment office computers.

"The disruption of mobilisation is closely linked to the spread of panic and intimidation of the population," the source said, adding that bombings were part of the general strategy.

INTENSIFYING STRIKES

Russian forces have also stepped up strikes on military training grounds in recent weeks, prompting Kyiv's top general to order a strengthening of security measures at bases.

A missile attack on southeastern Ukraine this week killed a brigade commander. Ukrainian forces have also staged longer-range attacks on Russian bases in occupied territory as well as deep inside Russia.

Thursday's strike on Poltava came after the US said it had paused some weapons shipments to Ukraine, which drew warnings in Kyiv that the move would harm Ukraine's defence against intensifying Russian air strikes and battlefield gains.

Separately on Thursday, two people were killed in a ballistic missile strike on port infrastructure in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, said regional governor Oleh Kiper.

Dozens of people have been killed in recent drone and missile salvoes at Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.