Roadside bomb kills American; April toll is deadliest of year

Iraqis are pessimistic about their economy and government, a poll shows.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An American soldier was killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday, making April the deadliest month for American forces in Iraq this year.
Also Friday, American troops, acting on tips from Iraqi intelligence, killed the reputed al-Qaida boss of Samarra, where a Shiite shrine bombing two months ago nearly plunged the country into civil war.
The latest American death, which occurred Thursday evening, brought the number of U.S. troops who have died this month in Iraq to at least 67.
Although that figure is well below some of the bloodiest months of the Iraq conflict, it marks a sharp increase over March, when 31 American service members were killed. January's death toll stood at 62 and February's at 55. In December 2005, 68 Americans died.
Explaining the increase
Reasons behind the rising U.S. deaths were unclear, and U.S. military officials have cautioned not to interpret cyclical changes as the beginning of a trend. Some U.S. officers have suggested the increase could be due to better weather this month, making it easier for insurgents to launch attacks.
The increase in U.S. deaths comes at a time when the U.S. military says sectarian violence among Iraqis is declining after a sharp rise in the wake of the Feb. 22 bombing in Samarra. That triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.
Poll: Iraqis are pessimistic
On a related note, a majority of Iraqis say their country is in dismal economic shape and getting worse, according to a new poll conducted by a conservative American think tank, with three in four respondents also describing security in the country as "poor."
The numbers reveal a population with little optimism about its economic future. They show Iraqis believe jobs are harder to find, electrical service is poorer, and corruption has increased dramatically since last year.
And 62 percent of respondents said Iraq is more politically divided today than in the past.
The latest poll was conducted between March 23 and March 31, a time of surging sectarian violence after the Samara bombing. It also preceded a political breakthrough last week after a long deadlock which had prevented Iraq's parties from forming a government.
Meanwhile, as oil prices above $70 a barrel foul the world economy, dismay is focusing on Iraq, whose exports have slipped to their lowest levels since the 2003 invasion.
"Iraq could be making a tremendous difference," said Dalton Garis, an economist at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. Instead, its shortfall is "a significant contributing factor to the high price of oil," he said.
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