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BAGHDAD – Bombs and bullets took a bloody toll Wednesday, killing 20 Iraqis and a U.S. soldier, even as military officials reported a sharp fall in attacks over the past year – a decline reflected in a steep decrease in violent deaths tallied by the Associated Press.

The Iraqi military said Wednesday that the number of “terrorist attacks” in June declined 85 percent from the same period a year ago.

An average of 25 attacks took place each day last month, compared with 160 during June 2007, an Iraqi army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, said at a news conference. He did not provide details on the individual attacks included in the figures.

Meanwhile, an Associated Press count showed the number of Iraqi civilians and security personnel killed in June was down 66 percent from the same month a year earlier, dropping to 554 from 1,642.

Associated Press