The number of attacks by Sunni insurgents has dropped significantly since the U.S. troop buildup reached its height last June, and tens of thousands of Sunni tribesmen joined the fight against the extremists in their midst.
The ongoing offensive in the northern city of Mosul, which U.S. officials have called the last urban stronghold of Al Qaeda in Iraq, has met little resistance, suggesting that most fighters had already fled the city or are lying low.
U.S. commanders caution, however, that Sunni extremists remain capable of inflicting lethal attacks.
Sheik Hikmat Ilgoud, mayor of the Anbar town of Hit, survived a suicide bombing Saturday that killed 10 people and injured 12, the Interior Ministry said. The assailant blew himself up at a police checkpoint minutes after the mayor's convoy left the site. Such attacks are a trademark of Al Qaeda in Iraq, a mostly homegrown group that U.S. commanders say is foreign-led.
The government's late-March crackdown in Basra triggered an uprising by militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr that drew in U.S.-led forces and threatened to unravel the recent security gains. More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed, many of them civilians, when the fighting spread to Sadr City and other Shiite areas of the capital.
The bloodshed in Sadr City has subsided since Shiite lawmakers loyal to Maliki signed a truce with Sadr's representatives May 12. But tensions between the main Shiite factions remain high, and sporadic clashes persist in other parts of the capital.
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alexandra.zavis@latimes.com
Times special correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.
