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Iraq violence at turning point { May 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/666698.htmlhttp://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/666698.html
Posted on Mon, Jun. 16, 2008 10:15 PM
Signs indicate Iraq has reached turning point
By ROBERT H. REID
The Associated Press
New signs are emerging that Iraq has reached a turning point.
Violence is down, armed extremists are in disarray, government confidence is rising and sectarian communities are gearing up for a battle at the polls rather than slaughter in the streets.
Iraq is by almost any measure safer today than at any time in the past three years. Fears that the country will disintegrate have receded, an analysis by The Associated Press shows.
The wave of sectarian massacres that pushed the country to the brink of all-out civil war in 2006 has calmed.
Despite the gains, the security and political situation in Iraq unquestionably is fragile.
Mohammed al-Sheikhli, director of the Transitional Justice Research Center in Baghdad, offered this caution:
“This relative calm is the calm before the storm. The worst violence is not over because the calm may collapse any moment.”
SOME ENCOURAGING SIGNS
•American deaths. American deaths last month — 19 including four noncombat fatalities — were the lowest monthly tally of the war. In May 2007, 126 American service members died.
•Iraqi deaths. Last month, at least 532 Iraqi civilians and security troopers were killed, according to figures compiled from Iraqi police and military reports. Although the number remains high, May’s total was down sharply from April’s figure of 1,080 and was the lowest monthly figure this year. By comparison, at least 1,920 Iraqis died in January 2007.
•Death squads. Shiite-Sunni reprisal killings still occur. But gangs of Sunni and Shiite death squads no longer roam the streets at night with impunity, seeking out victims from the rival religious community.
•Iraqi confidence. A new sense of confidence has emerged after recent Iraqi-run military operations against Sunni extremists, including al-Qaida, in the northern city of Mosul and against Shiite militiamen in Basra and Baghdad.
• Reasons behind the decline in violence include the U.S. surge troop buildup of 2007, the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a cease-fire called by militia chief Muqtada al-Sadr last August.
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