U.S. army says fewer IED attacks in one part of Baghdad

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The latest security crackdown in one part of Baghdad has led to significantly fewer attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces with improvised explosive devices, an American Army commander said on Friday.

Col. J.B. Burton, who heads a brigade patrolling a 36-square-mile (93-square-km) area of western Baghdad where about 1 million people live, cautioned that difficult work lay ahead and that the United States was not declaring victory.

"It is important to note that the overall effects of this new Baghdad security plan ... will not be seen in days or weeks, but over the course of months," Burton told reporters during a video conference from Iraq.

He only provided figures for his area and not for the rest of Baghdad and Anbar province, where U.S. forces are trying to quell unrelenting violence.

A roadside bomb on Thursday killed four U.S. soldiers in eastern Baghdad, and two car bombs exploded in Baghdad.

Troops have begun living in various neighbourhoods as part of the new plan to clear out insurgents.

President George W. Bush has approved sending about 26,000 extra troops to help, and the Boston Globe reported on Friday that the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, is seeking an additional Army brigade of 2,500 to 3,000 troops.

Burton said that in January, before extra forces were deployed, 89 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were detonated in the area that his troops patrol. Halfway through March, there have been 21 such attacks.

He also said there were three attacks in his area in March involving the deadlier explosively-formed penetrators (EFPs), down from 12 in January. The United States has accused Iraq's neighbour, Iran, of supplying the more sophisticated weapons to insurgents, a charge Tehran denies.

"While it is too early to determine if this downturn in the number and effectiveness of attacks is an enduring trend, it is definite that these conditions are giving the Iraqi security forces the opportunity they need to get control of the security situation and increase their professional capabilities," Burton said.

There are currently about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Burton's comments came after Democrats in control of Congress tried to force Bush to set a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq.

One Democratic plan to withdraw combat troops by next year passed a key test in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday. But the Senate failed to impose a similar deadline for ending the four-year-old war.

The war has become deeply unpopular. Recent opinion polls show more than 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of Iraq.