QUARTERLY IRAQ REPORT

The DoD is required by law to make quarterly reports on the situation in Iraq. You can get the entire PDF version of the latest one, covering the 3 months 12/06 through 2/07, here and I will provide some excerpts below.

Refugees.

Significant population displacement,
within Iraq and into neighboring
countries, diminishes Iraq’s professional
and entrepreneurial classes and strains the
capacities of the countries to which they
have relocated. According to the Office of
the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees, approximately 2 million
Iraqis are living outside of Iraq, with more
than a million in Syria and Jordan. It is
estimated that as many as 9,000 people are
fleeing Iraq every month.

1.3. The Security Environment

The conflict in Iraq has changed from a predominantly
Sunni-led insurgency against
foreign occupation to a struggle for the division
of political and economic influence
among sectarian groups and organized criminal
activity. As described in the January 2007
National Intelligence Estimate, the term “civil
war” does not adequately capture the complexity
of the conflict in Iraq, which includes
extensive Shi’a-on-Shi’a violence, al-Qaida
and Sunni insurgent attacks on Coalition
forces, and widespread criminally motivated
violence. Some elements of the situation in
Iraq are properly descriptive of a “civil war,”
including the hardening of ethno-sectarian
identities and mobilization, the changing
character of the violence, and population
displacements


1.3.1. Overall Assessment of the Security
Environment

The level of violence in Iraq continued to rise
during this reporting period as ethnic, tribal,
sectarian, and political factions seek power
over political and economic resources. Consistent
with previous reports, more than 80%
of the violence in Iraq is limited to four provinces
centered around Baghdad, although it
also exists in other population centers, such
as Kirkuk, Mosul, and Basrah.


1.3.4. Attack Trends and Violence

The total number of attacks on and casualties
suffered by Coalition forces, the ISF, and
Iraqi civilians for the October-December
reporting period were the highest for any
3-month period since 2003.