No News Is Good News in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Aug. 31, 2008 -- There was a one-line e-mail entry this weekend from ABC's Iraqi staffers, who keep a special list -- the depressing daily tally of sudden, violent deaths in Iraq's capital city. The list comes under the simple heading: "Today's Violence in Baghdad."

"According to our Interior Ministry source," the entry said, "there was only one unidentified body found in Baghdad today."

Two years ago, the daily list would average 50 or 60 bodies, or more. Some of them without heads. Many bearing signs of torture. Some of them children. Not to mention the mangled, dismembered corpses of those blown up by suicide bombers.

But the fact is that -- since the surge of American troops into Baghdad last spring; since the American military started paying former members of the Sunni insurgency (known as The Sons of Iraq) to patrol their own neighbourhoods and turn against al Qaeda; and since the Shiite religious leader Moqtada al Sadr ordered his militia, the Mehdi Army, to put down their weapons -- the once-atrocious level of violence across Iraq has fallen like a stone.

Here are some of the latest statistics, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to ABC News this week.

--Violent attacks have dropped 85 percent since June last year, across Iraq.

--The rate of U.S. military casualties has dropped 80 percent since last year.

--The rate of casualties in the Iraqi Security Forces has dropped 60 percent since last year.

--The number of roadside bombs, car bombs and suicide bombs has dropped by 56 percent since last year.

It's true that, as Winston Churchill once said, "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics." But these statistics are impressive, by any standard.

The obvious question is, can it last? Intelligence officials believe that al Qaeda in Iraq, which once operated with virtual impunity in certain areas like Anbar province, Diyala province and the town of Mosul, is now a degraded organization confined to rural areas of Iraq, with disrupted supply lines and a diminished pool of foreign fighters.

Better security on the borders, especially the western border with Syria, has reduced the flow of arms and men, officials say. Al Qaeda's former allies, the Sons of Iraq, have turned against them. Many have been killed or captured.