Violence tempers Iraq outlook
BAGHDAD, Iraq – After a violent week that claimed the lives of some 500 Iraqis, and the weekend combat deaths of six American soldiers, U.S. and Iraqi military officials acknowledged Sunday that it will take time for the effects of a much-vaunted security crackdown in Iraq to be felt.
The U.S. military disclosed late in the day that two U.S. troops were killed Saturday night in a roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad, and four others were slain in the same area a short time later in what was apparently an insurgent ambush laid for would-be rescuers.
A seventh soldier died Sunday in Al Anbar province from noncombat causes, the military said without disclosing details.
A new Iraqi government tally indicated that violent deaths of Iraqi civilians nationwide had climbed to 1,861 in March, up from 1,645 in February. American and Iraqi troops launched a wide-ranging security sweep in the capital on Feb. 13.
About half of the 30,000 additional American troops being deployed as part of President Bush’s “surge” strategy are now in place, a high-ranking American military official said Sunday. The remainder were to be deployed by early June, many of them in Baghdad, Rear Adm. Mark Fox told reporters.
Fox told a news conference that quelling sectarian attacks nationwide could prove a lengthy enterprise.
“The effort to exert security in Iraq will take time,” he said. “Our job will not be accomplished within days or weeks. … We are going to see more violence in the coming weeks and months.”
Amid the latest bloodshed, visiting Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, visited Baghdad on Sunday and insisted to journalists that tangible improvements in the security situation in Iraqi capital were being underemphasized in news reports.
McCain, visiting with other members of a Republican congressional delegation, said improvements were already apparent since the start of security sweep in Baghdad.
But hours before the Arizona senator spoke, a pair of senior Iraqi politicians, both Sunnis, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in a central Baghdad neighborhood.
The vehicle carrying Omar Abdul-Sattar and Omar Jabouri was hit by a roadside bomb as it traveled through the Yarmuk district.
U.S. military officials also disclosed Sunday that two unexploded suicide vests had been found inside the Green Zone but gave no details about the circumstances. Last week, a rocket attack killed two Americans in the closely guarded enclave that is the site of the U.S. Embassy and many Iraqi government installations.
A senior Iraqi military spokesman said a deadly spike in sectarian attacks in provincial cities and towns in recent days was partly a consequence of tighter security in the capital. Last week saw what the government said was the single deadliest attack of the 4-year-old war, a double truck bombing in the northern town of Tal Afar that killed 152 people, according to Iraqi officials.