Washington ? The Pentagon announced plans Thursday to send 85,000 Army and Marine combat forces to Iraq early next year to relieve troops completing one-year tours — a rotation that when combined with another switchout of troops in Afghanistan will be the Army’s largest sequence of troop movements since World War II.

The moves are part of a rotation plan that assumes Iraqis will be capable of contributing enough to the battle against the anti-occupation insurgency so the number of American troops in Iraq can be reduced from 131,600 today to 105,000 by May.