Iraq suicide attacks back on the rise, even as overall violence dips

Adam Doster Published: Saturday December 29, 2007  del.icio.us |
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Despite overall violence in Iraq dropping to levels not seen consistently since the summer of 2005, suicide bombings appear to be rising again, according to figures released today by General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Suicide attacks using explosive vests and car bombs started to inch back up during the last two months of 2007. For example, on Christmas Day, the Los Angeles Times reports that at least 24 people were killed and as many as 100 injured in two separate bombings.

But all is not lost. General Petraeus told reporters that the number of high-profile bombings, a signature of Sunni Arab insurgents, has dropped 60 percent from a peak of more than 120 this past March, with the most visible drop in remotely detonated car bombs.

Given the country’s fragile nature, commanders have been careful about making “overly optimistic predictions,” citing that insurgents are capable of staging major attacks at any time.

"Progress is of course tenuous,” says Petraeus, “and it could be reversed."

The Army contends that the drop in violence broadly can be credited to a number of factors: a 28,500-U.S. troop buildup, a cease-fire implemented by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr, the choice of tens of thousands of Sunni tribesmen to fight the extremists they once backed, and new assistance from Iraq's neighbors -- especially Syria -- to reduce the flow of foreign fighters into the war-torn country.

Some Iraqis, encouraged by the slowing violence, have started returning to their once-abandoned homes. But Petraeus warned that until a strategy was created to deal with cases in which people’s homes had been taken over by others or ruined, the relocation would be complicated.

"These are not situations we can resolve," he said of U.S.-led forces. "I think this is just going to remain a very, very tough issue for some time, and it's one that Iraqis, as the security situation continues to improve, are going to have to come to grips with more and more."

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