Also see below:     
Baghdad Bombs Kill 26, British Helicopters Crash    [

    US Troop Deaths Up 21 Percent in Iraq
    By Robert H. Reid
    The Associated Press

    Saturday 14 April 2007

Civilian deaths down in Baghdad but up elsewhere since start of security operation.

    Baghdad - Iraqi civilian deaths have fallen in Baghdad in the two months since the Feb. 14 start of the U.S.-led offensive, according to an Associated Press tally. Outside the capital, civilian deaths are up as Sunni and Shiite extremists shift their operations to avoid the crackdown.

    And the sweeps have taken a heavy toll on U.S. forces: Deaths among American soldiers climbed 21 percent in Baghdad compared with the previous two months.

    Since the crackdown began Feb. 14, U.S. military officials have spoken of encouraging signs that security is improving in the capital but have cautioned against drawing any firm conclusions until at least the summer.

    Figures compiled by the AP from Iraqi police reports show that 1,586 civilians were killed in Baghdad between the start of the offensive and Thursday.

    That represents a sharp drop from the 2,871 civilians who died violently in the capital during the two months that preceded the security crackdown.

    Outside the capital, 1,504 civilians were killed between Feb. 14 and Thursday, compared with 1,009 deaths during the two previous months, the figures show.

    "We know this increased security presence and cooperation from the people is having an impact in Baghdad," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William C. Caldwell said this week. "It is a good beginning, but it is not nearly enough. The violence across the rest of Iraq remains at unacceptable levels." Click Here To Tell Us Your Story. U.S. officials have cautioned that numbers alone cannot provide a complete picture of the security situation.

    The Baghdad crackdown was designed to provide the Iraqi government with what U.S. officials call a "secure platform" and to buy time for the country's religious and ethnically based political parties to agree on key reforms.

    So far there has been little progress on that front.

    Sunni and Shiite militants remain a potent force - regardless of whether they are slaughtering civilians in the capital at the previous rate.

    On Thursday, extremists managed to penetrate the most secure part of the capital - the Green Zone - and launch a suicide attack in the building where the Iraqi parliament meets.

    Earlier in the day, a suicide truck bomber heavily damaged a major bridge across the Tigris River, collapsing part of the span into the muddy waters.

    Such spectacular attacks may not produce a large number of civilian casualties. But they undermine public confidence - which the U.S. military believes is essential for lasting stability.

    "It is not going to be possible to see just how well the resulting mix of capabilities will counter the insurgency until the late spring of 2008 at the earliest," wrote former Pentagon analyst Anthony Cordesman. "The various insurgents and hostile groups may be weakened or suppressed early on, but will do their best to react."

    It is unclear why deaths outside Baghdad have increased. However, U.S. military officials say both Sunni and Shiite extremists left Baghdad ahead of the crackdown, instead stepping up their operations in a belt of communities around the capital.

    The rise in deaths outside Baghdad may also be partly a result of clashes in Anbar province between al-Qaida extremists and Sunni tribes that have broken with the extremist movement.

    For example, at least 52 people were killed Feb. 24 when a suicide truck bomber struck worshippers leaving a Sunni mosque in Anbar after the mosque's preacher spoke out against al-Qaida.

    Also, hundreds of Shiites died last month in a spate of bombings and shootings during a religious holiday - including 120 Shiite pilgrims killed by a pair of suicide bombers in Hillah.

    One key finding of the figures: Although civilians deaths are down in the capital, a careful analysis of the figures shows that sectarian tensions remain high.

    Of the 1,586 civilians killed in Baghdad since the start of the crackdown, more than half - or 832 - appear to have been the victims of sectarian death squads. Their bodies were found scattered around the city. That number represents a significant drop from the 1,754 bodies found in the capital during the two months before the crackdown, according to AP figures. Still, the figure shows that the security crackdown has been unable to stop death squads entirely.

    Furthermore, the number of civilians killed by suicide bombers has risen in Baghdad - 352 during the crackdown compared with 279 in the two months before.

    Suicide bombings are considered the signature attack of Sunni religious extremists, including al-Qaida in Iraq. And most of the suicide attacks occurred in largely Shiite areas of the capital, indicating attacks on Shiites by Sunnis.

    The AP count includes civilians as well as government officials and police and security forces, and is considered a minimum based on AP reporting.

    The United Nations had been releasing monthly civilian casualty figures compiled from information received from the Iraqi Health Ministry, hospitals across the country and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad.

    However, the U.N. office in Baghdad has not released a casualty report since late January. U.N. officials in Baghdad have been saying for weeks that new figures would be released soon and have offered no explanation for the delay.

    Iraqi officials had complained that the U.N. figures were too high.

    Go to Original

    Baghdad Bombs Kill 26, British Helicopters Crash
    By Paul Tait
    Reuters

    Sunday 15 April 2007

    Baghdad - Up to 26 people were killed and 70 wounded in bomb attacks in three mainly Shi'ite districts of Baghdad on Sunday, police said, and two British military personnel died when two helicopters crashed north of the city.

    The Britons died and another five were injured when the Puma transport helicopters crashed near a large U.S. air base in Taji, 20 km (9 miles) from Baghdad. It appeared the helicopters may have collided in mid-air, the U.S. military said.

    Two car bombs earlier on Sunday killed 15 people and wounded 50 more in the al-Shurta al-Rabeia neighborhood in southwest Baghdad. The first was detonated in a market, followed seconds later by another at a nearby intersection, police said.

    They said mortar rounds also landed in the area in an apparently coordinated attack.

    Twisted metal littered the market, television footage showed. Several cars were damaged in the explosion.

    In the Kadhimiya district in the northwest of the capital, a police source said a suicide bomber wearing a belt packed with explosives killed six people and wounded 11 in a small bus. Another police source put the death toll at three.

    In Karrada in central Baghdad, a car bomb aimed at a police patrol killed five people and wounded another 10 in a blast that rattled windows hundreds of meters away, police said.

    A two-month-old, U.S.-backed security crackdown in Baghdad seen as the last-ditch attempt to avoid Iraq from sliding into all-out civil war has reduced the number of targeted killings. But U.S. and Iraqi commanders still find car and suicide bombers hard to stop.

    The U.S. military said the helicopter crash near Taji did not appear to be the result of an insurgent attack.

    "We have seen a rise in the number of car bomb attacks. We have been very diligent in taking down these people who build these car bombs. We are taking one cell at a time," said U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox.

    British Helicopter Crash

    The helicopters' crash brought the British death toll in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to 142. Eight have been killed this month alone.

    "Sadly, two personnel have died and one is very seriously injured. All of these were UK personnel," British Defense Secretary Des Browne said in a statement issued in London.

    Puma helicopters normally have a three-person crew and can carry up to 16 troops.

    In Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, four Iraqi soldiers were killed when two oil trucks driven by suicide bombers exploded outside an Iraqi military base, police said.

    Health officials said another three people had died after Saturday's suicide car bomb blast at a crowded bus station in Kerbala, a holy city that is a main pilgrimage destination for Shi'ites, taking the death toll to 43. Another 200 were wounded.

    Sectarian tensions between majority Shi'ites and once-dominant Sunni Arabs are high after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 unleashed a wave of violence. Tens of thousands have been killed since then.

    In the volatile southern city of Basra, British forces backing up a police raid in the southwestern Hayaniya district, a Shi'ite militia stronghold, shot five gunmen who had opened fire on them overnight, the British military said.

    British officials could not confirm if they had been killed or wounded.

    British forces are pursuing a more aggressive policy towards Shi'ite militias as they prepare to hand over security control in Basra to Iraqi forces later this year. Stabilising the port city is crucial because it is the hub for Iraq's main oilfields.

    British forces killed eight militiamen laying roadside bombs on the western outskirts of Basra on Friday night. More than 20 gunmen were hit in another operation in the city last Tuesday.