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Troop Deaths Continue Marked Improvement . . . and Iraqis Continue to Flood Back Home
More good news from Iraq: troop deaths continue to remain low in November.
US Deaths in Iraq Remain Low in November
By LORI HINNANTBAGHDAD (AP) — November was on course to be the least deadly for American troops in Iraq since March 2006, with the U.S. military reporting its 35th death of the month Thursday.
The figures were a sign of respite from years of bloodshed that forced some 2 million Iraqis to flee their homes and prompted the buildup of nearly 30,000 additional U.S. forces.
The U.S. military said an American soldier had been killed by small-arms fire Wednesday in Baghdad. The number of U.S. deaths has plummeted since May, when 126 Americans died as the influx of troops gained momentum. Thirty-one troops died in March 2006.
In the past six months, streets that had been closed during the height of sectarian fighting have reopened — with strict limits. Checkpoints, roadblocks, concrete blast walls and American and Iraqi patrols are still the norm in many parts of the capital.
But some of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who fled their homeland for neighboring Syria and Jordan and beyond are returning — with money, transport and protection from their government. The program also seeks to win favor from neighboring countries such as Syria and Jordan that are struggling with an estimated 2.2 million Iraqi refugees.
Late Wednesday, about 20 buses carrying hundreds of Iraqi refugees rolled into a Baghdad depot — the first from the Iraqi-funded effort to speed the return of families. National Security Minister Sherwan al-Waili, who met the convoy, said each returning family would receive $750 to get started rebuilding their lives.
“The returning home of displaced families is considered as a great victory for law enforcement and national reconciliation,” military spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said. “We didn’t ask any family about his sect or ethnicity. Such things were created by terrorism and will disappear along with terrorism.”
Officials gave varying figures for the number of people who returned in the convoy. Iraqi diplomats in Syria said 800 would leave while al-Moussawi put the figure at more than 400.
The returning families were hustled into cars to take them home. Those who lived outside Baghdad were taken to a government-owned hotel to spend the night.
“We heard that the security situation has improved, so we have returned home. The government has provided us with a force guarding us from the Iraqi borders to Baghdad,” Sami Abu Muhanad, one of those returning, told AP Television News on Thursday. . . .
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