US says Iraq unrest at four-year low, Qaeda on the run

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Violence across Iraq hit a four-year low last week and US and Iraqi military operations have Al-Qaeda on the run, the US military said on Sunday, but warned the jihadists remained a lethal threat.

"Iraqi-wide we have seen a significant reduction in violence in the past week," US military spokesman Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll told reporters, adding: "Security incidents decreased to a level not seen since March 2004."

He said the US internal system of monitoring violence levels showed a significant decrease in the number of incidents.

Driscoll said he could not immediately give figures for how many people had been killed or wounded across the country in the past week and how closely these compared with March 2004 levels.

But he added that the number of incidents had declined by 70 percent since the US increased its troop presence last year with "surge ...