Author Topic: Iraq violence near 'normal levels'  (Read 386 times)

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Iraq violence near 'normal levels'
« on: July 29, 2008, 10:56:29 AM »
Overall violence in Iraq is declining to almost "normal" levels, General David Petraeus told USA Today in an interview published Tuesday, following a string of attacks the day before.

The commander of US forces in Iraq warned however that the trend could be reversed by "sensational attacks" like those Monday in Baghdad and Kirkuk that killed some 56 Iraqis.

"If you could reduce these sensational attacks further, I think you are almost approaching a level of normal or latent violence," he told the newspaper in a phone interview from Baghdad.

"The fact that the levels of violence have come down so significantly and stayed down now for some two-and-a-half months ... indicates there is a degree of durability," Petraeus said.

Daily attacks have averaged 25 to 30 over the past two months, compared with 160 to 170 a little more than a year ago, Petraeus told the paper.

"What we've got to do, of course, is figure out how to keep it there, while, over time, further reducing our forces and ... trying to further degrade the networks that carry out the sensational attacks," he said.

July marked the lowest US soldier death toll since the start of the war, according to a USA Today tally.

Six US soldiers have died in combat in July thus far, the daily said, the lowest level of US troop mortality since May 2003, just after the March 2003 US invasion, when the total US soldier death toll was eight.

The drop in violence comes amid growing pressure to beef up the US troop presence in Afghanistan, where the level of violence is higher.

About 145,000 US soldiers are currently on the ground in Iraq, but those numbers could decrease in coming months. Petraeus has said he will decide in September whether to continue withdrawing troops from Iraq.