Violence in Iraq Belies Claims of Calm, Data Show - 70 Attacks each day
/Less than four months before planned national
elections in Iraq, attacks against U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces
and private contractors number in the dozens each day and have spread
to parts of the country that had been relatively peaceful, according to
statistics compiled by a private security firm working for the U.S.
government. Attacks over the past two weeks have killed more than 250
Iraqis and 29 U.S. military personnel, according to figures released by
Iraq's Health Ministry and the Pentagon. A sampling of daily reports
produced during that period by Kroll Security International for the
U.S. Agency for International Development shows that such attacks
typically number about 70 each day. In contrast, 40 to 50 hostile
incidents occurred daily during the weeks preceding the handover of
political authority to an interim Iraqi government on June 28,
according to military officials. [more 
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