BAGHDAD — U.S. military deaths in Iraq plunged by two-thirds in 2008 from the previous year, a reflection of the improving security following the U.S. military’s counterinsurgency campaign and al-Qaeda’s slow retreat from the battlefield.
By comparison, the war in Afghanistan saw American military deaths rise by 35 percent in 2008 as Islamic extremists shift their focus to a new front with the West.
According to a tally by The Associated Press, at least 314 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq in 2008, down from 904 in the previous year.
In all, at least 4,221 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the war began in 2003.
For Iraqis, the plunge was also marked: During 2008, at least 7,496 Iraqis died in war-related violence according to an AP count, including 6,068 civilians and 1,428 security personnel, down 60 percent from 2007.
The AP tally does not reflect a comprehensive total for Iraqi deaths because reports do not come in from all of the country.
In Afghanistan, 151 U.S. soldiers died in 2008, compared with 111 in the previous year, according to an AP tally. The count recorded 1,160 civilians killed in insurgency-related violence, up from 875.
At least 625 U.S. soldiers have died because of the war in Afghanistan since the fighting began in 2001.
The AP count is based on figures from Afghan, U.S. and NATO officials.
The combined total of at least 465 U.S. deaths in both Iraq and Afghanistan for 2008 is the lowest figure for both wars since 2003, when the U.S. invaded Iraq.
Many critics have said the U.S. focus on Iraq led it to neglect the war in Afghanistan, allowing both al-Qaeda and Taliban militants to regroup after being routed in 2001. The Taliban, in the past year, moved into wide swaths of Afghan countryside, where Afghan security forces or international troops don’t operate.
The drop in Iraq violence has bolstered the Iraqi government’s confidence as it takes what it calls full sovereignty of the country today. Under a new security pact, Iraq will take the lead in security from U.S. forces, regain control of its airspace, and take back the Green Zone, a wide area of downtown Baghdad that the U.S. occupied after its 2003 invasion.
But the deaths of two soldiers on the last day of the year underscored that significant violence persists. One soldier was killed by a mortar round in Baghdad and the other died from wound sustained in combat a day earlier in Tikrit, the military said.
Iraq also remains torn by hostility between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
Police announced Wednesday the arrest of a leading figure in a messianic Shiite cult that has battled Iraqi and U.S. forces, possibly thwarting plans to carry out attacks against hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who will gather next week at one of Iraq’s holiest shrines.
