Reuters Cooking the Books?

Civilian deaths from violence across Iraq fell by 50 percent in September from the previous month to the lowest level recorded this year, government data showed on Monday. Information provided by the Health, Interior and Defense Ministries showed that 884 civilians were killed in September, down from 1,773 in August. A total of 850 civilians were wounded, the figures showed, also well down on the previous month’s 1,559. The casualties were also the lowest recorded since Washington poured an extra 30,000 U.S. troops into Iraq as part of a last-ditch security crackdown aimed at al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab militants and Shi’ite militias across the country.

Sixty-three U.S. military deaths were reported in September, the lowest monthly toll since July 2006, according to U.S. forces and a preliminary count by The Associated Press. A U.S. soldier was killed Sunday in a small-arms attack during combat operations in eastern Baghdad, the military said Monday. The soldier, whose name was withheld pending notification of relatives, was assigned to the Multi-National Division-Baghdad. In July 2006, 43 American soldiers were killed, according to an AP count. “It’s still too high,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox said of the deaths during a news conference. “But the trend is in the right direction.” The death raised to at least 3,804 members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count U.S. and Iraqi forces killed more than 60 insurgent and militia fighters in intense battles over the weekend, with most of the casualties believed to have been al-Qaida fighters, officials said. U.S. aircraft killed more than 20 al-Qaida in Iraq fighters who opened fire on an American air patrol northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said Sunday.