Iraq Violence Falls to 4-year Low

By Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times)

Baghdad – The U.S. military said Sunday that the number of attacks by militants in the last week dropped to a level not seen in Iraq since March 2004.

About 300 violent incidents were recorded in the seven-day period ended Friday, down from a weekly high of nearly 1,600 in mid-June last year, according to a chart provided by the military.

The announcement appeared aimed at allaying fears that an uprising by militiamen loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr could unravel security gains since 28,500 additional American troops were deployed in Iraq in a buildup that reached its height in June.

Navy Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, a military spokesman, credited the decrease to a series of operations launched by the Iraqi government in the last two months to extend control over parts of the country that have been under the sway of armed Sunni Arab and Shiite militants.

They include crackdowns in the southern oil hub of Basra, the northern city of Mosul and the Baghdad district of Sadri City.

The number of attacks nationwide spiked to about 850 in the week that Basra crackdown began, according to the military’s chart. The figure has ebbed and flowed since.

The fighting in southern Iraq subsided to a week after it started when a truce was reached between al-Sadr’s movement and the main Shiite factions in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government. Violence also has dropped in Sadr City since another deal was signed May 12, clearing the way for Iraqi troops to deploy throughout the heavily populated district, which is a bastion of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia.

But clashes have persisted in other section of the capital, where U.S. and Iraqi forces are confronting al-Sadr’s militia.

Driscoll said the number of attacks nationwide had declined 70 percent since the crest of the troop buildup.

Most of the additional forces are expected to leave Iraq by the end of July.