Over 40 civilians and 9 US soldiers killed in spurt in violence; GAO criticizes Bush administration’s measures of progress; US Senate approves $160 bn in war funds
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    • Series of bomb blasts in Mosul and in Anbar province killed over 40 people during the week. The Islamic State of Iraq (Al Qaeda in Iraq) claimed responsibility for the June 26 suicide attack in the town of Garmah, near Fallujah, Anbar province that killed over 20 people1. At least 9 US soldiers also died in the latest spurt in violence even as the Pentagon in a report covering the period from March-May asserted that violence levels in the country had fallen between 40-80 per cent. The report noted that this reduction was due to the increase in US troop levels as well as due to better coordination of security operations with Iraqi forces2.

    Another study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released in the week criticised the measures of security, economic and political progress that the Bush administration was using to determine the improving situation. It pointed out that improvement in the security situation for instance was not due to advances in political and social reconciliation or due to a functioning Iraqi government, but rested on a few fragile developments. These included the increase in American troop strength, a shaky cease-fire declared by militias loyal to al-Sadr, and an American program that paid former insurgents not to take up arms again3.

    Iraqi authorities have meanwhile criticised a US raid near Kerbala, which was conducted without the knowledge of the local authorities. The governor of the province termed the raid as “…barbaric and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty” as this was in an area under the control of Iraqi security forces. Reports noted that the disagreements would further hamper the ongoing negotiations over the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA)4.

    In other developments, the US Senate approved over $160 billion in funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, taking the total amount spent on these wars since 2001 to over $800 billion5. The House of Representatives had passed the same measure in the previous week.

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