(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-20 19:41

BAGHDAD - The No. 2 US commander in Iraq said Thursday that a seven-month-old security operation has reduced violence by 50 percent in Baghdad but he acknowledged that civilians were still dying at too high a rate.

Hassan Jaber, 37, recovers from gunshot wounds in a hospital in Baghdad, Iraq on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007. [AP]

The comments came as relations between the US and Iraqi governments remained strained in the wake of Sunday's shooting involving Blackwater USA security guards, which Iraqi officials said left at least 11 people dead. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suggested the US Embassy find another company to protect its diplomats.

The North Carolina-based company has said its employees acted "lawfully and appropriately" in response to an armed attack against a State Department convoy.

But a survivor who said he was three cars away from the convoy denied the American guards were under fire, claiming they apparently started shooting to disperse more than two dozen cars that were stuck in a traffic jam.

"It is not true when they say that they were attacked. We did not hear any gunshots before they started shooting," lawyer Hassan Jabir said from his hospital bed, where he lay with bandages on his stomach and back.

On Thursday, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno told reporters that car bombs and suicide attacks in Baghdad have fallen to their lowest level in a year, and civilian casualties have dropped from a high of about 32 to 12 per day.

He also said violence in Baghdad had seen a 50 percent decrease, although he did not provide details about how the numbers were obtained and said that was short of the military's objectives.

"What we do know is that there has been a decline in civilian casualties, but I would say again that it's not at the level we want it to be," Odierno said. "There are still way too many civilian casualties inside of Baghdad and Iraq."

Al-Qaida in Iraq was "increasingly being pushed out of Baghdad, "seeking refuge outside" the capital and "even fleeing Iraq," Odierno said.

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