BAGHDAD, Dec 29: US and Iraqi commanders said on Saturday there had been a remarkable improvement in the country’s security over the past year, but the top American general also warned that the gains could be reversed.

“Success will emerge slowly and fitfully with reverses as well as advances. Inevitably there will be tough fighting, more tough days and more tough weeks, but fewer of them, inshallah (God willing),” General David Petraeus said in a year-end briefing to journalists.

In a message to his troops, he wrote: “A year ago, Iraq was racked by horrific violence and on the brink of civil war.

“Now, levels of violence and civilian and military casualties are significantly reduced and hope has been rekindled in Iraqi communities. To be sure, the progress is reversible and there is much more to be done.”

Petraeus said the number of attacks in Iraq had fallen by 60 per cent since June and the number of civilian deaths had fallen by 75 per cent since a year ago. The number of US military deaths was also sharply lower.

But figures supplied at Petraeus’s briefing also showed a slight rise in suicide car and vest bombs since October. At least 33 people were killed by two suicide bombs on Christmas Day, and 10 people died in a Baghdad car bomb on Friday.

December is on track to be the least deadly month for US-led forces in Iraq.

At his own end-year briefing, Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf issued another series of optimistic statistics: Seventy-five percent of Al Qaeda networks and 70 per cent of its activities have been eliminated, he said. Assassination attempts were down by 79 percent since June.

Fewer corpses were being dumped in the streets: “We found more than 15 to 20 bodies in February every day. But now the number of dead bodies is 3 or 5 (per day),” Khalaf said.

US CAUTIOUS

Although the security situation has improved this year, US commanders have been careful not to declare victory after years in which their statements were often seen as overly optimistic.

Petraeus said tactics should now shift from a focus on security toward civilian aims, such as helping Iraq restore services and create jobs, to prevent violence from returning.

The decline in violence came about after Washington sent a “surge” of 30,000 extra troops to Iraqi this year. Withdrawals are now under way that will see numbers decline to about pre-surge levels by mid-2008.

US commanders say they will decide troop levels beyond that after an assessment in March. Petraeus said US forces would not withdraw entirely from areas but “thin out” their presence and gradually hand control to Iraqi forces.

In Najaf, hundreds of thousands of worshippers gathered for a religious ceremony at the golden-domed shrine to Imam Ali.—Reuters