U.S. troop deaths in Iraq dropped sharply for the second consecutive month, the Pentagon announced this week. Thirty-seven Americans died in October, down from 65 in September and 84 in August. The monthly death toll was the second lowest since February 2004, when 20 troops were killed. Violence against civilians in and around Baghdad also continued to decline, with 598 attacks, down from 2,455 in January. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said that in Baghdad, the presence of al Qaida in Iraq has been significantly reduced and its actions degraded. But elsewhere in the country, Petraeus said, the group remains very lethal.
Petraeus pointedly declined to address the fragile situation along Iraq’s northern border with Turkey. Turkey is threatening to invade northern Iraq, in pursuit of Kurdish separatists, unless coalition forces aggressively crack down on the militants there. The Pentagon confirmed that U.S. reconnaissance planes have been flying over the mountainous border region. We are supplying the Turks with intelligence, lots of intelligence, said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.
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