Iraq violence lowest since '06 mosque attack: U.S.

By Paul Tait

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level since before a 2006 mosque attack which unleashed the deadliest phase of the Iraq war, the deputy commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said on Thursday.

Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno said attacks in Baghdad had also fallen by half since January, just before Washington began pouring 30,000 extra troops into Iraq to try to drag the nation back from the brink of sectarian civil war.

"There are still way too many civilian casualties inside of Baghdad and Iraq," Odierno said, after telling a news conference the number of sectarian killings in the capital had fallen from an average of about 32 a day to 12 a day this year.

U.S. forces launched a crackdown in Baghdad in February that spread to other provinces, targeting Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgents as well as Shi'ite militias.

"Al Qaeda in Iraq is increasingly being pushed out of Baghdad and the surrounding areas. They are now seeking refuge elsewhere in the country and even fleeing Iraq," Odierno said.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki this month said his government had averted civil war and that levels of violence in Baghdad and surrounding areas had fallen 75 percent this year.

And on Thursday, President George W. Bush defended plans to withdraw about 20,000 U.S. troops by July, saying: "Progress will yield fewer troops."

Al Qaeda, however, has vowed to step up attacks during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Odierno said there had been no sign of any reprisal attacks so far since a separate Baghdad shooting on Sunday involving U.S. security firm Blackwater in which 11 people were killed.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have launched a joint inquiry into the incident, with Maliki's government announcing it had halted the work of Blackwater, which guards U.S. embassy officials, and would review all local and foreign security firms.

U.S. embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said Blackwater was still contracted to the State Department but had not done any work since a ban on U.S. diplomatic convoys leaving Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone was imposed on Tuesday.

In Iraq's north, the U.S. military said it had arrested an Iranian man it accused of being a member of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Quds force who had smuggled deadly roadside bombs into Iraq.

Iran said the man, detained during an early-morning raid on a hotel in Sulaimaniya in autonomous Kurdistan, was a businessman. Kurdistan and Iraqi government officials said he was a member of a trade delegation.

Old foes Tehran and Washington accuse each other of being responsible for Iraq's violence.

DEADLIEST PHASE