Washington – Violence in Iraq, as measured by casualties among troops and civilians, has edged higher despite the U.S.- led security push in Baghdad, the Pentagon told Congress on Wednesday.
In its required quarterly report on security, political and economic developments in Iraq, covering the February- May period, the Pentagon also raised questions about Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s ability to fulfill a pledge made in January to prohibit political interference in security operations and to allow no safe havens for sectarian militias.
Overall, however, the report said it was too soon to judge whether the security crackdown was working.
The security mission was launched Feb. 14 and is still unfolding as the last of a “surge” of 28,000 U.S. forces takes positions in and around the Iraqi capital. Congress requires the Pentagon to provide its initial assessment of the operation in July, and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has said he will report in September.
Wednesday’s broader report, the eighth in a series, said that while violence fell in the capital and in Anbar province west of Baghdad during the February-May period, it increased in other areas, particularly in the outlying areas of Baghdad province and in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad and in the northern province of Nineva.
The report described Iraq’s violence as mainly a result of illegally armed groups engaging in a “cycle of sectarian and politically motivated violence, using tactics that include indiscriminate bombing, murder, executions and indirect fire (rocket and mortar attacks) to intimidate and to provide sectarian conflict.”
Unlike the previous such report to Congress, submitted in March, the Pentagon made no reference to the debate over whether Iraq is in a civil war.
It noted that al-Maliki had pledged in January, when President Bush announced his commitment to send more U.S. troops to Baghdad, that there would be no political interference in the security crackdown and no sectarian favoritism.
“To date, operations in Baghdad indicate that Iraqi government delivery on these commitments has been uneven,” the report said.
