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Daily deaths double last year's

The war-related Iraqi toll is down in Baghdad but still perilously high countrywide.

BAGHDAD - This year's U.S. troop buildup has succeeded in bringing violence in Baghdad down from peak levels, but the death toll from sectarian attacks around the country is running at nearly double the pace from a year ago.

Some of the recent bloodshed appears to be the result of militant fighters drifting into parts of northern Iraq, where they have fled after U.S.-led offensives.

Baghdad, however, still accounts for slightly more than half of all war-related killings - the same percentage as a year ago, according to figures compiled by the Associated Press.

The tallies and trends offer a sobering snapshot after an additional 30,000 U.S. troops began campaigns in February to regain control of the Baghdad area. It also highlights one of the major themes expected in next month's Iraq progress report to Congress: some military headway, but extremist factions are far from broken.

The AP tracking includes Iraqi civilians, government officials, police and security forces killed in attacks such as gunfights and bombings, which are frequently blamed on Sunni suicide strikes. It also includes execution-style killings - largely the work of Shiite death squads.

The figures are considered a minimum based on AP reporting. The actual numbers are likely higher, as many killings go unreported or uncounted. Insurgent deaths are not a part of the Iraqi count.

The findings include:

- Iraq is suffering about double the number of war-related deaths throughout the country compared with last year - an average daily toll of 33 in 2006, and 62 so far this year.

- Nearly 1,000 more people have been killed in violence across Iraq in the first eight months of this year than in all of 2006. So far this year, about 14,800 people have died in war-related attacks and sectarian murders. AP reporting accounted for 13,811 deaths in 2006. The United Nations and other sources placed the 2006 toll far higher.

- Baghdad has gone from representing 76 percent of all civilian and police war-related deaths in Iraq in January to 52 percent in July, bringing it back to the same spot it was roughly a year ago.

- According to the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization, the number of displaced Iraqis has more than doubled since the start of the year, from 447,337 on Jan. 1 to 1.14-million on July 31.

However, Brig. Gen. Richard Sherlock, deputy director for operational planning for the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said violence in Iraq "has continued to decline and is at the lowest level since June 2006."

He offered no statistics to back his claim, but in a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday warned that insurgents might intensify attacks in Iraq to coincide with three milestones: the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, the beginning of Ramadan and the report to Congress.

Guards cheer call to withdraw from Iraq

Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila called for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq at a conference of more than 4,000 National Guardsmen in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Saturday.

Acevedo said the U.S. administration has "no new strategy and no signs of success" and that prolonging the war would needlessly put guardsmen in harm's way.

"The war in Iraq has fractured the political will of the United States and the world," he said at the opening of the 129th National Guard Association general conference. "Clearly, a new war strategy is required."

Col. David Carrion Baralt, the Guard's top official in the U.S. Caribbean territory, said Acevedo received a standing ovation.

BUSH SAYS IRAQIS SACRIFICING FOR THEIR COUNTRY

President Bush said Saturday that Iraqis are sacrificing dearly to secure their country, trying to underscore that the United States is not bearing the toll alone. "Here at home, it can be easy to overlook the bravery shown by Iraqi troops and Iraqi civilians who are in the fight for freedom," Bush said in a radio address taped at his ranch in Crawford, central Texas. "But our troops on the ground see it every day." Former Democratic Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, who lost both legs and an arm while serving in Vietnam, said Bush is ignoring the facts to try again to sell the Iraq war. Despite enormous sacrifice by Americans, Cleland said in his party's radio address, "We find ourselves mired in a civil war with no end in sight and Iraqis unable or unwilling to make the political decisions necessary to end this conflict."

7 die in car bombing

A car bomb exploded Saturday near Baghdad's most important Shiite shrine, killing seven people and wounding dozens as authorities imposed new security restrictions to prevent attacks on Shiite pilgrims ahead of major religious ceremonies south of the capital. More than 1-million pilgrims from throughout the Shiite world are expected to converge on Karbala for the celebrations, which reach their high point late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

Other developments

- U.S. forces killed three insurgent suspects and captured 17 others in a series of raids against al-Qaida operatives, the military said.

- The U.S. military announced the grisly discovery of an execution site in the Arab Jabour district, a Sunni Arab area just south of Baghdad where al-Qaida in Iraq is known to operate. Soldiers found human skulls, decomposing bodies in a pit and bones wrapped in bloody clothes, U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said in a statement.

[Last modified August 26, 2007, 01:38:52]