Number of attacks decreases on Baghdad highway to airport [View All]

[Barrett808]

Number of attacks decreases on Baghdad highway to airport
By Kimberly Johnson Special for, USA TODAY
Wed Sep 14, 7:01 AM ET

Attacks on and around the 7-mile highway linking Baghdad to its international airport have dropped 41% since May, the result of increased U.S. and Iraqi troop presence and new tactics to battle insurgents along one of the world's most dangerous roads.

There hasn't been a suicide car bombing on the road since April, according to U.S. military statistics through August.

U.S. officers attribute the decline to an influx of Iraqi troops who have been stationed at key points along Airport Road, which goes by the military designation Route Irish.


"Route Irish is definitely not the most dangerous road in

Iraq any longer, and everyone who uses it knows it," says Lt. Col. Geoffrey Slack, commander of the New York National Guard's 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment.

...

U.S. officers stop short of saying the problem is fixed. "I don't want to speculate that things are going to stay the same, but obviously with the things that have been done, the road is safer," Conway says.

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