Baghdad, Iraq – Iraq’s prime minister said the nation’s armed forces were not ready to fight without American help, and the U.S. military reported the deaths of nine more soldiers Monday.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told Iraq’s parliament that the U.S. military is still needed despite what he described as a sharp drop in violence in the Baghdad area since President Bush ordered nearly 30,000 extra troops to Iraq this year.
“We still need more efforts and time in order for our armed forces to be able to take over security in all Iraqi provinces from the multinational forces that helped us a great deal in fighting terrorism and outlaws,” al-Maliki said just hours before U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus began their statements on Capitol Hill.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, said violence had dropped 75 percent in the Baghdad area since stepped-up military operations began in the capital Feb. 14 – although he offered no detailed figures. He also said his government had kept the country from descending into all-out Sunni-Shiite civil war after the wave of sectarian bloodletting last year.
A tally of civilian deaths compiled by The Associated Press showed a less dramatic drop in the Baghdad area – from 1,148 in February to 669 in August. The overall level of civilian deaths around the country, however, remained relatively steady during the period as violence shifted to other regions, according to the AP figures, based on government, police and hospital records.
Sunni politicians acknowledged that Iraq’s security forces were not ready to defend the country on their own but challenged al-Maliki’s statements that life was improving.
“Al-Maliki was talking about the illusion of improvement in the security situation,” Sunni lawmaker Mohammed al-Dayni said. “This is just talk. … All streets are blocked with concrete walls and barbed wires. … People are living a confused and abnormal life.”
In western Baghdad, seven U.S. soldiers were killed in a vehicle accident that also claimed the lives of two detainees, the military said. Eleven soldiers from Multinational Division-Baghdad and one detainee also were injured in the west Baghdad accident, the military said, without giving further details.
A U.S. spokesman, Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, said all the victims were traveling in the same vehicle.
Another U.S. soldier was killed and two were injured when their vehicle overturned east of the capital, the military said.
The military also said a soldier died Sunday of wounds suffered in fighting near Kirkuk in northern Iraq.
The latest deaths bring to at least 3,772 members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
