|
US: Surge in attacks not a trend
09/03/2008 16:52 - (SA)
Baghdad - The US military said on
Sunday a recent increase in bombings was not the start of a
wider trend in Iraq and violence had decreased overall.
US military spokesperson Rear Admiral Greg Smith said he did
not think recent security gains were being reversed.
"I would not look at the last few weeks as an increase or a
trend, but there has been a sporadic series of events that ...
have resulted in significant loss of life," Smith told a news
conference.
Smith said the spate of recent attacks needed to be compared
with a year ago, when thousands of civilians were dying in
sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni
Arabs, with US troops also suffering heavy casualties.
Iraqi police said 68 people died when two bombs exploded
within minutes of each other in a popular, crowded shopping area
in central Baghdad on Thursday evening, the deadliest single
bombing in the capital since last June. Ceasefire Overall levels of violence are sharply down since last June,
when 30 000 extra US soldiers were deployed.
That coincided with a ceasefire by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr's Mehdi army militia and a decision by mainly Sunni Arab
tribal sheiks to turn against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.
But the number of violent civilian deaths rose sharply in
February, the first increase in six months, after bombings which
Smith blamed on al-Qaeda killed more than 160 people.
Any upsurge in violence could pose headaches for Washington
over its plans to withdraw some US troops from Iraq.
"There has been substantial progress - levels of violence
are down by 60-70%, civilian deaths and a variety of
other categories that we watch are all down," General David
Petraeus, the US military commander in Iraq, told Sky News.
US commanders say al-Qaeda is the greatest threat to
Iraq's security, but they are also concerned about "rogue"
Shi'ite militias which they accuse Iran of financing, training
and arming.
Tehran has denied the charges, blaming the US presence in
Iraq for the violence.
- Reuters
|
News
.jpg)
