TIDE? MORE LIKE A RIPPLE:

The endgame - has Iraq's insurgency run out of steam? (IAN MATHER, 4/03/05, Scotland on Sunday)

TWO years after the huge statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in the centre of Baghdad, the tide could finally be turning against the country’s insurgents.

Although the euphoria that accompanied the demolition of the statue has long since evaporated, some observers are beginning to wonder whether the insurgency in Iraq is at last running out of steam.

The US military has experienced its least deadly month for more than a year. Operations along with the newly formed Iraqi police have snared a number of leading terrorists with links to al-Qaeda and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The casualty data for March shows that 39 American and coalition troops were killed during the month - the lowest toll since February 2004.

US deaths have now dropped for three months in a row, from 106 in January to 56 in February and 35 in March. Attacks on US troops are also down from over 100 before the January 30 election to around 60 today. Among the March figures were one British death and three from other coalition countries.

Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita says: "The intelligence is getting better. We have apprehended or killed an enormous number of insurgents, so we may well be seeing people who are less skilled at what they’re doing. Their ability to anticipate and target is becoming cruder because the coalition’s intelligence is getting better."

How can you write "two years" and "finally" in the same sentence?

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 3, 2005 6:24 PM