As the casualty rates in Iraq for American and Iraqi soldiers continue to decline, the focus shifts to civilian casualties. In order to stabilize the country, the security forces have to drive attacks and deaths down to the point where native security forces can take control and allow the US to concentrate on rebuilding efforts. In October, the Coalition showed continued progress towards that goal, with civilian casualties dropping... to a level not seen since 2005:

Iraq's civilian body count in October was less than half that at its height in January, reflecting both the tactical successes of this year's U.S. troop buildup and the lasting impact of waves of sectarian death squad killings, car bombings and neighborhood purges. ...

American commanders credit the buildup, which reached full strength in June, with slowing sectarian bloodshed.

They say the decision to send 28,500 more troops to Iraq has made a difference by allowing them to send soldiers to live on the fault lines between Sunni Arab and Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, and to conduct sweeping offensives in provinces east and south of the capital against strongholds of Shiite Muslim militias and Sunni militants linked to foreign insurgents.

Part of the progress has come from shifts in population that have created more homogeneous neighborhoods. Instead of mixing the various populations, shared areas such as Baghdad have instead transformed into self-segregated territories. It follows from a year-long sectarian battle that radicalized the various groups until the fighting finally began its decline after the surge.

Lt. General Ray Odierno held a briefing... earlier today explaining the statistics. As the slide below shows, all types of attacks have declined. and the numbers now resemble what the situation looked like in the month before the Golden Mosque bombing in February 2005. Found and cleared bombs declined slightly, but notice the big drop in detonated IEDs from the summer. Mortar and rockets attacks have dropped significantly, as have small-arms and grenade attacks.

The peak of the violence came this year as the surge troops arrived. Ever since the full implementation of General David Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategies, the violence has dropped and the terrorists have lost ground. Combined with the sharp decline in civilian violence, the data clearly shows progress in stabilizing Iraq and defanging the terrorists.

There remains plenty of work to do. None of it will be easy or quick. However, we can see that the change in command has taken us in the right direction -- and it's a direction we should continue to pursue.