Gen.: Major attacks in Iraq down since surge
By Jim Michaels - USA Today
Posted : Monday Aug 13, 2007 7:28:05 EDT

The number of car bombs and other large al-Qaida-style attacks in Iraq have declined nearly 50 percent since the U.S. started increasing troop levels in Iraq about six months ago, according to the U.S. military command in Iraq.

The high-profile attacks — generally large bombs hitting markets, mosques or other “soft” targets that produce mass casualties — have dropped to about 70 in July from a high during the past year of about 130 in March, according to the Multi-National Force-Iraq.

Military officers say the decline reflects progress in damaging al-Qaida’s networks in Iraq. The military has launched offensives around Baghdad aimed at al-Qaida sanctuaries and bases.

“The enemy had the initiative and the momentum in ’06,” said retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, a chief architect of the increase in troop levels and mentor to Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. “We’ve got it now.”

Keane spoke from Iraq.

Al-Qaida militants generally attempt large, headline-grabbing incidents aimed at symbolic targets or mass casualties. Al-Qaida in Iraq, for example, claimed responsibility for the April suicide bomb attack on parliament.

Successes against al-Qaida have also been helped by shifting Sunni public opinion against al-Qaida and a growing number of insurgent defections, the military said.

Petraeus, who will give his assessment of the boost in troop levels in mid-September, said hundreds of al-Qaida leaders have been killed or captured in the past month. He cautioned that al-Qaida still has the “ability to carry out sensational attacks.” On Thursday, a suicide car bombing killed eight civilians north of Baghdad.

The increased security in many neighborhoods has also prompted more civilians to come forth with tips, officers said. The U.S. military gets 23,000 tips per month from Iraqis, four times more than last year, said Army Col. Ralph Baker, a former brigade commander in Iraq now assigned to the Pentagon.

Al-Qaida is generally behind the massive publicity-seeking attacks, but much of the sectarian violence and attacks on coalition forces is the work of Shiite militias, according to the U.S. military. Coalition forces have had less success against these groups.

Last month, Shiite militias were responsible for 73 percent of the attacks that killed or wounded U.S. troops, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the U.S. second-in-command, told The Associated Press.

In the Baghdad area, attacks from explosively formed penetrators increased to 35 in July from an average of 23 per month between March and July, said Maj. Steven Lamb, a spokesman for the U.S. division in Baghdad. The U.S. military said the EFPs are supplied by Iran primarily to Shiite militias.

Targeting militias has proved more sensitive than attacking al-Qaida, since Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government draws some of its support from Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric whose followers form one of Iraq’s largest militias. In the past, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had sometimes blocked or criticized U.S. raids in Shiite strongholds. U.S. officers say that kind of interference has diminished.

Ellie