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Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level since a 2006 mosque attack which unleashed the deadliest phase of the Iraq war, the deputy commander of United States forces in Iraq has said.
Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno yesterday said attacks in Baghdad had also fallen by half since
January, just before Washington began pouring 30,000 extra troops into Iraq to try to drag the nation back from the brink of sectarian civil war.
"There are still way too many civilian casualties inside of Baghdad and Iraq," Odierno said, adding that the number of sectarian killings in the capital had fallen from about 32 a day to 12 a day this year.
US forces launched a crackdown in Baghdad in February that spread to other provinces, targeting Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgents as well as Shiite militias.
"Al Qaeda in Iraq is increasingly being pushed out of Baghdad and the surrounding areas. They are now seeking refuge elsewhere in the country and even fleeing Iraq," Odierno said.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki this month said his Government had averted civil war and that levels of violence in Baghdad and surrounding areas had fallen 75 per cent this year.
President George W. Bush also defended plans to withdraw about 20,000 US troops by July, saying: "Progress will yield fewer troops."
Al Qaeda, however, has vowed to step up attacks during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Odierno said there had been no sign of reprisal attacks since a Baghdad shooting at the weekend involving US security firm Blackwater in which 11 people were killed.
US and Iraqi officials have launched a joint inquiry into the incident, with Maliki's Government announcing it had halted the work of Blackwater, which guards US embassy officials, and would review all local and foreign security firms.
In Iraq's north, the US military said it had arrested an Iranian man it accused of being a member of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Quds force who had smuggled deadly roadside bombs into Iraq.
Iran said the man, detained during an early-morning raid on a hotel in Sulaimaniya in autonomous Kurdistan, was a businessman. Kurdistan and Iraqi Government officials said he was a member of a trade delegation.
Odierno said US and Iraqi forces had been keeping al Qaeda and other militant groups "off balance" by targeting their leadership as they push out of large bases into smaller combat outposts and joint command centres.
He said 60 per cent more weapons caches had been discovered in the first nine months of 2007 than in all of 2006, leading to a decrease in attacks by improvised explosive devices.
- Reuters
