About 400 members of a Lynchburg-based Virginia National Guard battalion are being mobilized for a security mission in Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Robert Newman Jr., the adjutant general of Virginia, says the 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Brigade Combat Team will begin federal active duty January 5. The soldiers will undergo mobilization training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi for 45 to 60 days before they are deployed to Iraq.

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