BAGHDAD — At least 22 Iraqis were killed in four car bombings across the country Wednesday, underscoring the persistent danger as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited Iraq to see for himself the effects of a recent decline in violence.
In the day's deadliest attack, a car bomb exploded outside a crowded juice shop in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Karada, killing at least 14 people and injuring 33, police said.
The U.S. military also reported the deaths of three soldiers the previous day in a complex attack involving a roadside bomb and small-arms fire in Salahuddin province, north of the capital. One soldier was injured in the ambush. The deaths bring to 3,886 the number of U.S. military personnel killed since the start of the Iraq war in 2003, according to the independent website icasualties.org.
U.S. officials last month trumpeted a 55% decline in attacks since the deployment of about 28,500 additional troops in Baghdad and surrounding regions was completed in mid-June. The reduced bloodshed has been accompanied by significantly lower civilian and military death rates.
One of Gates' main objectives Wednesday was to assess whether progress could be sustained as troop numbers are substantially reduced.
"More than ever I believe that the goal of a secure, stable and democratic Iraq is within reach," Gates told reporters, though he added that "much remains to be done."
Gates, on his sixth visit to Iraq since taking office last December, said the more than 70,000 Iraqis who have volunteered to join the fight against the Sunni Muslim insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq must be incorporated into the country's security forces or placed in other employment.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government has expressed reservations, fearing that the mostly Sunni volunteers, some of them former insurgents, could turn their guns against the Shiite-led authorities once U.S. forces leave. But the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, recently agreed to take over the contracts of as many as 12,000 people in Baghdad who are being paid by the U.S. military to help secure their neighborhoods.
Several top U.S. military and diplomatic officials also have pressed Iraqi politicians to capitalize on the security gains to push through legislative compromises on power sharing considered key to long-term stability.
