More than 1,800 Iraqis killed in one month
Middle East Desk Report

BAGHDAD—A huge suicide attack in northern Iraq caused civilian deaths to rise slightly in August despite security gains elsewhere, making it the second deadliest month for Iraqis since the U.S. troop buildup began, figures compiled by The Associated Press showed Saturday.
At least 1,809 civilians were killed, compared to 1,760 in July, based on figures compiled from official Iraqi reports. The August total included 520 people killed in quadruple suicide bombings near the Syrian border on Aug. 14, the deadliest day since the war began in March 2003. The attacks targeted Yazidis, a small Kurdish-speaking sect whose members are considered to be blasphemers by Muslim extremists.
U.S. deaths last month remained well below figures from last winter, when the U.S began dispatching 30,000 additional troops to Iraq. American officials have maintained that violence is declining in Iraq in the run-up to a series of reports to Congress this month that will decide the course of the U.S. military presence here.
The top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, told The Australian newspaper in an interview published Friday that the troop increase has sharply reduced sectarian killings in Baghdad, in particular. Petraeus is expected to make the same point when he reports to Congress in about two weeks.
The U.S. said Saturday that it welcomed an order by the most powerful Shiite militia leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, for his Mahdi Army to halt attacks for up to six months so he could reorganize and purge the force of unruly factions that the U.S. maintains are armed and trained by Iran. “If implemented, Sadr’s order holds the prospect of allowing coalition and Iraqi security forces to intensify their focus on al-Qaida-Iraq and on protecting the Iraqi population,” the U.S. military said.
Its statement said an end to Mahdi Army violence “would also be an important step in helping Iraqi authorities focus greater attention on achieving the political and economic solutions necessary for progress and less on dealing with criminal activity, sectarian violence, kidnappings, assassinations, and attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces.”
Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out raids in Shiite areas, at least some targeting breakaway Mahdi Army factions. Before daybreak, Iraqi and American forces raided Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of the Mahdi Army. The U.S. military said American troops and Iraqi police were involved in the raid and searched two houses, detaining three suspects. On the way back to base the group was attacked with a roadside bomb but suffered no injuries, Spc. Emily Greene said in an e-mailed statement.
Leaflets scattered around Sadr City urged people to report on Shiite militants who are cooperating with the Iranians, providing a cell phone number and a yahoo.com e-mail address.
“The criminal Iraqis who work with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are toys under Persian control,” read one of the leaflets, which pictured a puppet dancing on strings. “Iranian Revolutionary Guards are interfering in Iraq’s affairs while Iraqis are dying.” Iran denies the U.S. claim that it has been arming Shiite extremists, including breakaway Mahdi Army factions which the U.S. refers to as the “special groups.”
In two other Baghdad operations that targeted special groups, eight other suspects were captured, the U.S. military said. The targets of the operations were leaders believed responsible for helping bring Iranian weapons and other munitions into Iraq, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver. Troops confiscated three AK-47s, a large sum of Iraqi currency, suspicious documents and photographs during searches of several buildings.
Armed Shiite groups are locked in a struggle for power in Shiite areas of the capital and in the Shiite heartland of the south, which includes major religious shrines and vast oil wealth. Control of the shrines offers not only prestige but access to huge sums of money donated by Shiites from around the world.
As part of that power struggle, gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated Muslim al-Batat, an aide to the country’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, police said. The attack occurred in Basra, where numerous militias are competing for power. Al-Sistani has called for unity in the majority Shiite community.
In other violence, five Iraqi soldiers were killed and their vehicle destroyed in an afternoon roadside bombing in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi army Brig. Gen. Noor Eddin Husein
In several American operations Friday and Saturday, the U.S. military said it had killed seven terrorist suspects and captured 15 others.
The raids included one in the Baghdad neighborhood of Rusafa on Saturday in which the military said it had captured a suspect believed to be a member of al-Qaida in Iraq responsible for security in the area, who is responsible for kidnapping and car-bombing operations.