"From Mosul in the north to Basra in the south, insurgent-committed violence in Iraq continues to decrease as stability visibly increases, a senior U.S. military officer posted in Iraq said today.

'For 10 of the last 11 weeks, we’ve sustained less than 200 attacks per week nationwide,' Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, told Pentagon reporters during a satellite-carried news conference from his Baghdad headquarters.

Attacks in Iraq had once reached more than 1,500 a week a few years ago during the zenith of insurgent-committed violence.

'It is undeniable that Iraq is in a much better place than it was several months ago,' said Austin, who also commands 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, N.C. He took command of Multinational Corps Iraq on Feb. 14."