“I came away from all of it feeling very good about the direction of things in the security arena, about what is going on at the local and provincial level in terms of people reaching out to each other, crossing tribal, sectarian and provincial boundaries to work together,” Mr. Gates said after arriving in Bahrain, where he will attend an annual conference on regional security issues.
By Thom Shankur
MANAMA, Bahrain, Dec. 6 — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today that security progress in Iraq was significant yet still fragile, an assessment echoed by the senior American commander in Baghdad, who strongly cautioned against a premature declaration of victory.
Completing his sixth visit to Iraq as defense secretary, Mr. Gates met on Wednesday and today with commanders in the northern city of Mosul and in Baghdad, as well as with senior Iraqi government officials. He said he left the country “encouraged.”
“I came away from all of it feeling very good about the direction of things in the security arena, about what is going on at the local and provincial level in terms of people reaching out to each other, crossing tribal, sectarian and provincial boundaries to work together,” Mr. Gates said after arriving in Bahrain, where he will attend an annual conference on regional security issues.
He acknowledged that political reconciliation at the national level must accelerate and has not kept up with progress made by local and provincial officials.
“I came away with a sense that there is growing pressure from below for the top levels of the government to replicate the kind of reconciliation that is going on in a variety of other places in Iraq,” Mr. Gates said.
Earlier today, speaking to reporters at his headquarters in Baghdad, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior American commander in Iraq, warned against any false confidence from the marked decline in violence under the American troop increase this year.
“Nobody says anything about turning corners, seeing lights at the ends of tunnels, any of those other phrases,” General Petraeus said. “And I think when you’ve been doing this as long as some of us have, you just keep your head down and keep moving.”
General Petraeus spoke in an hour-long interview with Pentagon correspondents at his headquarters at Camp Victory, and described the measured optimism felt by senior commanders at progress in putting terrorists, insurgents and radical militia cells on the run by bringing in additional American forces this year.
There are days, he said, “when you certainly feel very good about what our troopers and Iraqi counterparts have done.
“But there are setbacks along the way. And there are still car bombs that go off. There are still attacks.”
General Petraeus said there “are continued improvements in the security situation,” but repeatedly stated that “there is much hard work still to be done.”
Statistics compiled by the American military show that weekly attacks are now at levels last seen consistently in the late spring of 2005. High-profile attacks, such as car bombs and suicide attacks, are down 60 percent from a peak in March. Civilian deaths are back to 2005 levels, and American military losses in November were at their lowest point in 20 months.
Even so, 2007 has been the deadliest year for American forces since the beginning of military operations here in 2003, the general said.
General Petraeus said Syria had taken steps to halt the transit of foreign fighters across its borders into Iraq, and expressed hopes that Iran would fulfill its pledge to the Baghdad government to prevent assistance from flowing across its borders to radical Shia groups in Iraq.
Although fighters connected to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown terrorist network, have been routed from Baghdad and a ring of villages around the capital, the general expressed worry they are planning a spectacular attack to show that they remain a serious threat.
“It is a concern,” he said. “Absolutely. We have to be careful not to get to feeling too successful.”
Mr. Gates completed inspection tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq this week, in advance of the annual security conference.
Iran is certain to be discussed at the conference, Mr. Gates said, although it is unlikely he will have any official conversation with defense ministry officials from Tehran attending the session.
“I don’t expect to have any interaction with the Iranians,” Mr. Gates said.
