U.S.: Attacks rise south of Baghdad

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq (AP) — Attacks on Iraqi security forces have increased in an area south of Baghdad where the Iraqis are in control, even as violence nationwide has fallen to levels of the first months of the war, U.S. officers said Wednesday.

The spike in attacks has not risen so much that it would affect U.S. plans to turn over more security responsibility to the Iraqis, Gen. Carter Ham, the commander of U.S. Army Europe, was told during a visit with Europe-based units.

During a briefing for the general, Maj. Pat Kaune, intelligence chief of the 1st Armored Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, said attacks on U.S. forces in his sector had fallen by about half since the unit arrived from Germany a year ago.

In the last month, attacks on Iraqi army and police leaders had increased, he said.

Kaune gave no figures but added that “we don’t see any trends that are cause for concern that the ISF [Iraqi security forces] can’t handle.”

His brigade’s area includes south Baghdad and a belt of communities around the southern rim of the capital, where insurgents used to rig car bombs for attacks in the city.

The area was targeted by U.S. soldiers during the 2007 troop surge, which largely succeeded in shutting down car-bomb factories there.

But the increase in attacks there underscores the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite militants and will test the ability of Iraq’s security forces to maintain order as the U.S. draws down its military presence this year.

Despite the local increase, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. David Perkins said attacks nationwide had fallen to levels of the early months of the war, which began with the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

“At the height of the violence, we were averaging 1,250 attacks a week,” Perkins said Wednesday. “Now, many times, we have less than 100 a week.”

Perkins said that in January and February of 2007, 148 U.S. troops were killed in action in Iraq. In the first two months of this year, 19 troops died as a result of hostile fire.