Attacks increasing, Pentagon reports
Published 9:00 pm Monday, December 18, 2006
WASHINGTON – Attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops and Iraqi civilians jumped sharply in recent months to the highest level since Iraq regained its sovereignty in June 2004, the Pentagon told Congress on Monday in the latest indication of that country’s spiraling violence.
The Pentagon said in a quarterly report that from mid-August to mid-November, the weekly average number of attacks increased 22 percent from the previous three months. The worst violence was in Baghdad and in the western province of Anbar, long the focus of activity by Sunni insurgents.
The development of an Iraqi army and police is making progress, the report said, but much remains to be done.
It said, for example, that the goal of training and equipping an Iraqi army of about 137,000 soldiers is 98 percent completed, although it also noted that the actual number of troops available for duty on any given day is far fewer, due to absenteeism, casualties, desertions and leaves of absence.
The report indicated that the number of Iraqi army battalions in combat – generally numbering a few hundred each – has declined from 114 battalions in August to 113 in October and 112 last month. The decline was not explained.
The report said that as security conditions permit and the Iraqi army and police become more capable, U.S. forces will move out of the cities, reduce the number of bases from which they operate and conduct fewer visible patrols.
