Iraq Attacks, U.S. Casualties At 4-Year Low

BY: James Gordon Meek

Source Article HERE.

From 'NY Daily News': Combat, bombings and sniper attacks in Iraq - along with U.S. casualties - have plummeted from the highest point of the war 13 months ago to a four-year low, new military statistics show. Every category of violence has dramatically fallen to the lowest levels since March 2004. Military officers in Baghdad offer cautious optimism that the insurgency's violent grip is closer to being broken than ever. "Violence is at its lowest level in more than four years and IED [improvised explosive device] incidents are at their lowest level since we first began recording them," Navy Lt. David Russell, a spokesman for Multi-National Forces-Iraq, said last week.

The number of attacks has dropped like a rock since enemy violence peaked in June 2007, four months after the start of the surge, according to an internal military document. Ethno-sectarian violence, which exploded after the 2006 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra, is a fraction of what it was then, the document says. "We all know that there will be good days and bad days in Iraq, but the important thing is that we see security incidents trending in the right direction," Russell said. "The security situation is probably the best we've ever seen it," added Army Major General Michael Oates, commander of the Fort Drum-based 10th Mountain Division in central Iraq.

Iraq's good news might boost surge-backer John McCain's GOP presidential bid if not for rising casualties in Afghanistan - a focus of Democratic opponent Barack Obama's counterterror policy - which passed G.I. deaths in Iraq in May and June. There are signs the downward trend in Iraq may have bottomed out. In Anbar Province west of Baghdad, the former Sunni extremist hotbed has seen a recent uptick in coalition deaths.

In May, elite U.S. sniper teams killed over 100 insurgents as they set up ambushes and planted IEDs in Fallujah and Ramadi, senior U.S. special operations sources told The News. U.S. officials predicted that Al Qaeda of Iraq operatives who survived surge offensives went underground and will strike before the U.S. and Iraqi fall elections. "Violence is going to be involved in the Iraqi election," said one top Special Forces officer.