Iraq casualties rise again after Qaeda bombs

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Violent civilian deaths in Iraq rose 36percent in February from the previous month after a series oflarge-scale bombings blamed on al Qaeda, Iraqi governmentfigures showed on Saturday.

A total of 633 civilians died violently in February,compared with 466 in January, according to figures released byIraq's interior, defence and health ministries. It was thefirst increase after six consecutive months of falling casualtytolls.

Despite its sharp rise, the February 2008 figure was stilldramatically lower than the 1,645 civilians who died violentlyin the same month a year ago. A total of 701 civilians werewounded, compared with 2,700 a year ago.

Declining civilian casualties have been hailed by Iraqi andU.S. military officials as proof that new counter-insurgencytactics adopted last year have been working and Iraq is safer.

February's casualty figures spiked after female bomberskilled 99 people at two pet markets in Baghdad on February 2and a suicide bomber killed 63 people returning from a Shi'itereligious ritual south of Baghdad on February 24.

Both attacks were blamed on al Qaeda.

Officials say attacks across Iraq have fallen 60 percentsince last June, when an extra 30,000 U.S. troops became fullydeployed as part of the new counter-insurgency strategy, whichincluded moving troops out of large bases and into smallercombat outposts.

That coincided with the growth of largely Sunni Arabneighbourhood police units, whose U.S.-backed guards now numberabout 80,000 and are also credited with playing a large part inimproved security.

ABDUCTED AT GUNPOINT

U.S. commanders say al Qaeda and other insurgents remaindangerous enemies, especially in Iraq's north where they haveregrouped after crackdowns on former strongholds in westernAnbar province and around Baghdad last year.

In northern Mosul, police were searching for Paulos FarajRahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop snatched at gunpointafter he left a church on Friday. His driver and two guardswere killed in the attack.

Police and representatives of the Chaldean church, a branchof the Roman Catholic Church which practises an ancient Easternrite, said nothing had been heard about Rahho's fate.

Christians make up about 3 percent of Iraq's 27 millionmainly Muslim population and have been targeted several timesin recent years. A Catholic priest and three assistants werekilled in ethnically and religiously mixed Mosul last June.

"The situation for Christians is like that for other peoplein Iraq. We live in the same society and we are sharing thesame suffering," Andraws Abuna, an assistant to the Chaldeanpatriarch of Baghdad, told Reuters.

U.S. military deaths fell after a spike in January. So far29 U.S. soldiers have been reported killed in February,compared with 40 in January.

Both figures are much lower than a year ago, when 81 and 83were killed in February and January 2007 as Iraq teetered onthe brink of all-out sectarian civil war between majorityShi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.

A total of 3,973 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraqsince the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Friday's data showed 65 policemen and 20 Iraqi soldierswere killed, compared with 132 and 28 respectively in January,and that 235 insurgents had been killed and 1,340 detained.

Another factor in improved security has been the six-monthceasefire announced in August of the Mehdi Army militia ofanti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. That ceasefire wasextended by another six months last month.

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden in Baghdad; Editingby

Caroline Drees)