Report shows increase in Iraq violence since January

Iraq has seen some increased violence since January, including suicide and car bombings, despite a sharp overall decline in attacks in the past eight months, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

The rise in violence was partly as a result of recent U.S.-led offensives against Islamist militants, including al Qaeda in Iraq, the Defense Department said in its latest quarterly report on the war.

The release of the report, which covers December through February, coincided with a surge of violence that killed 46 people across Iraq on Tuesday.

The Pentagon noted a rise in security incidents since January in Nineveh and Diyala provinces and other areas where it said al Qaeda in Iraq militants have flocked since being driven from former strongholds by U.S.-allied Sunni tribesmen.

The report called the increased violence a "short term" result of military operations against insurgents that began in January.

Defense officials could not say how closely the violence sparked by the offensives was related to a rise in large bombings that are aimed at causing many deaths, described as "high-profile attacks."

"In January 2008, high-profile attacks rose for the first time in five months as a result of a slight increase in person-borne IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and a slight increase in vehicle-borne IED's," the report said.

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