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US toll in Iraq hits all-time low as month ends
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-01 09:43

BAGHDAD - The monthly US toll in Iraq fell to its lowest point since the war began, with 11 American deaths as July drew to a close Thursday after the departure of the last surge brigade.

Iraqis also are dying at dramatically lower numbers with the war in its sixth year. July saw the lowest civilian toll since December 2005, though a series of suicide bombings this week and rising ethnic tensions in northern Iraq reflect the fragility of the security successes.


A man prepares fish in a traditional Iraqi way outside a restaurant in west Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, July 31, 2008. [Agencies] 

An Associated Press tally shows at least 510 Iraqi civilians and security force members were killed in July, a 75 percent drop from the 2,021 deaths in the same period last year as the US troop buildup aimed at quelling rampant Sunni-Shiite violence was nearing its peak.

The drastic decline in violence over the past year has led to increasing optimism among American commanders, who have been wary of declaring success after past lulls proved short-lived. It also has become a key issue in the US presidential campaign.

"The progress is still reversible," US President Bush said Thursday in Washington. But he said a new "degree of durability in gains" should permit him to announce further US troop reductions later this year.

The last of five combat brigades sent as part of the so-called surge returned home in July, leaving about 145,000 US troops in Iraq. That is still higher than the roughly 130,000-135,000 who were here before the troop increase.

But the American soldiers appear to be taking on more of a peacekeeping role after many Sunni and Shiite extremists agreed to stop fighting.

The US military has pointed to a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a truce by anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as playing a large part in the drop in violence, along with the troop buildup and improvements in training Iraqi security forces.

Baghdad -- the site of the some of the worst sectarian violence that pushed the country to the brink of civil war -- has been turned into a maze of concrete walls and checkpoints that make it difficult for militants to function.

"The key mission for the United States looking forward is to maintain the cease-fires and prevent people from going back to the warpath," said Stephen Biddle, an analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations who has advised the US military command in Iraq.

"Their purpose in Iraq is increasingly changing from fighting a war to keeping a peace," he added in a telephone interview.

Altogether, 11 American fatalities were recorded in July, including six from non-hostile causes. The bodies of two American soldiers missing after an attack last year were also found. There were 29 deaths in June. By contrast, July 2007 saw 80 deaths, according to AP figures.

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