Both Petraeus and Gates said it was too soon to tell what caused the drop, or whether Iran was living up to its promise to the Iraqi government to try to stem the movement of arms and extremists into Iraq.
"I think that is still an open question," said Gates, who spoke to reporters after touring the USS Vicksburg, a guided-missile cruiser that has been patrolling the Arabian Gulf but docked here. "They clearly have made some commitments to the government of Iraq and I think we're waiting to see."
Gates will attend a regional security conference in Manama, and he said he expects "Iranian behavior in a number of areas will clearly come up during the conversations."
MANAMA, Bahrain - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday he came away from his visit to Iraq feeling "very good about the direction of things in the security arena." His top U.S. commander in the country described a 60 percent decline in violence there in the past six months.
Gates met for an hour with Gen. David Petraeus after spending two days holding talks with Iraqi officials and military commanders both in Baghdad and in Mosul to the north. The Pentagon chief said Iraq's government now must take advantage of the improved security and move toward needed political reforms.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the presidential council "know that people are getting impatient, and that they need to get on with legislation and sending the message to the rest of their people that they can work together," Gates told reporters traveling with him. "My hope is that that will produce some results fairly soon in some of these key legislative areas."
Gates noted progress by local tribal leaders and provincial governments in quashing violence in their communities. Now, he said, national leaders are feeling pressure to match that local progress.
While Petraeus described the security gains in parts of Iraq, he acknowledged there are still significant problem areas. Those include the north, where some al-Qaida activity is on the rise. But overall, he said gains in Baghdad gave him the flexibility to boost military efforts in other regions still rocked by violence.
Armed with charts showing that, as of Wednesday, weekly attacks and Iraqi civilian deaths have plunged to levels not seen here since early 2006, Petraeus told reporters the improved security is due to a number of factors including "a reduction in some of the signature attacks that are associated with weapons provided by Iran," as well as a cease-fire called by radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr he said had a noticeable impact on one of the most violent areas of Baghdad.
Both Petraeus and Gates said it was too soon to tell what caused the drop, or whether Iran was living up to its promise to the Iraqi government to try to stem the movement of arms and extremists into Iraq.
"I think that is still an open question," said Gates, who spoke to reporters after touring the USS Vicksburg, a guided-missile cruiser that has been patrolling the Arabian Gulf but docked here. "They clearly have made some commitments to the government of Iraq and I think we're waiting to see."
Gates will attend a regional security conference in Manama, and he said he expects "Iranian behavior in a number of areas will clearly come up during the conversations."
A LOOK BACK AT THIS WEEK
The U.S. military expressed concern that Iraq's government is unprepared for the mass return of refugees to Baghdad.
Captors of five Britons kidnapped more than six months ago demanded that Britain pull all of its forces from Iraq, but did not list their demands.
Four separate car bombs across Iraq killed as many as 25 Iraqis on the day U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited to assess a recent drop in violence.
