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Length: 2:52
KITTY PILGRIM: In Iraq
today, bombs rocked Baghdad and Kirkuk, killing more
than two dozen people. Now, the attacks highlighting
the difficulties faced by U.S. and Iraqi forces in
their efforts to curb the violence.
Michael Ware joins me with more from Baghdad.
Michael, even with the bombings today, though,
Baghdad has been fairly quiet since the troop
increase, correct?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, not entirely.
It's seen the battle in the capital Baghdad change
and mutate, as we have done many times before in many
places around this country during this war.
What U.S. commanders are saying is that there has
been an ebb in sectarian violence, albeit there was a
spike just last week. They're still urging caution.
Now, one of the primary reasons why there's less
sectarian killings is because U.S. troops are
actually living and staying with many of the Iraqi
forces who make up the death squads. So, the death
squads and their facilitators are basically being
baby-sat by American troops and kept in their
barracks or their positions at night. So, we're also
seeing a displacement. We're seeing leaders and
fighters from the militias and the insurgents moving
outside of the capital.
They're either lying back, waiting to see how the
Americans react, or they have taken the fight
elsewhere, like Diyala Province, just north of the
capital, where violence has spiked so much, commander
General Petraeus has had to send an extra battalion
of Strykers just to shore up the defenses -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: I think, the American public, really, the
big question in their mind is, how much of this
recent violence is directed towards the U.S. troops?
How much of it is sectarian?
Is it possible to know?
WARE: Well, yeah, it is possible to know.
I mean, what we're seeing is, on the latest figures
that have been given to Congress, which, you know,
are now a few weeks old, is that American troops are
still being attacked -- or coalition troops are still
being attacked, on average, about 148 times a day.
That's more than 2.5 times the rate they were being
attacked every day two years ago.
At the same time, you're having death squads hauling
people off and just executing them. So, there's many
different types of violence here. Indeed, Kitty,
there's four wars here in Iraq: the war against al
Qaeda, the war against the Sunni insurgents --in
which America is capitulating and cutting deals
feverishly with the Baathists -- the civil war, and
the ongoing conflict/competition/rivalry between
America and Iran for influence here in Iraq.
Indeed, the central government here is much closer to
Tehran than it is to Washington. So, there's many
battlefronts yet to be played out -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Michael Ware.