BAGHDAD: U.S. forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said, allowing U.S. troops involved in the "surge" to depart as planned.
Major General Joseph Fil Jr., the commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, also said Wednesday that U.S. troops had yet to clear some 13 percent of the city, including Sadr City and several other areas controlled by Shiite militias. But, he said, "there's just no question" that violence has declined since a spike in June.
"Murder victims are down 80 percent from where they were at the peak," and attacks involving improvised bombs are down 70 percent, he said.
Fil attributed the decline to improvements in the Iraqi security forces, a cease-fire ordered by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, disruption of financing for insurgents and, most significant, Iraqis' rejection of "the rule of the gun."
His comments, in a broad interview in a Green Zone conference room, were the latest in a series of upbeat assessments he and other commanders have offered in recent months. But his descriptions revealed a city still in transition: tormented by its past, struggling to find a better future.
By Damien Cave
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