Baghdad, Iraq ? Scores of Mississippi National Guard troops in Iraq who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina have been refused even 15-day leaves to aid their displaced families, told by commanders there were too few U.S. troops in Iraq to spare them, according to members of the Mississippi Guard.

About 600 members of the Mississippi Guard’s 155th Brigade Combat Team, posted south of Baghdad in the area known as the “Triangle of Death” for the frequency of insurgent attacks, live in the parts of southern Mississippi and southeast Louisiana hit hardest by Katrina, Maj. Neil F. Murphy Jr., a spokesman with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, said by e-mail Saturday.

Guard members and relatives said in e-mails or telephone interviews that virtually all of the roughly 300 soldiers of 155th Brigade’s B and C companies had their homes destroyed or severely damaged in the hurricane.

Eighty Mississippi Guard members have been granted emergency leave, Murphy said.

The rest have been refused leave, told by their brigade command that all other forward operating bases “are tapped out and cannot send troops,” one Mississippi Guard member wrote in an e-mail that was shared by a family member, with his permission, on condition of anonymity.

“All I know is that we are combat-ineffective due to the problems at home,” wrote the Guard member, whose wife and young child escaped before their apartment building was washed away.

“We will start patrolling again soon so we have to get back out and try not to get blown up,” the Guard member said. “We have served our country honorably for the last nine months and it is time for them to return the favor. That being said, let it be known that we are not trying to get out of duties, but we feel that we should be at home with our families doing what we were supposed to do.”

The 80 soldiers granted leave will depart their bases “over the next 2-3 days,” Glasgow wrote.

Roughly 78,000 National Guard troops are overseas, the vast majority of them in Iraq. Forty percent of the Mississippi National Guard’s forces are in Iraq, including the 3,500 in the brigade combat team.

Murphy, the Marine spokesman, wrote: “We believe that the balance has been established to effectively manage both situations” in Iraq and at home. “We’ve been told that those that need to go home have been granted leave or are in the process of doing so.” He wrote late Saturday that he was still investigating whether commanders had told Guard members that there were too few troops in Iraq to let them return.