BAGHDAD, July 31: Eleven US soldiers were killed in Iraq in July, the lowest monthly toll since the 2003 invasion, according to Pentagon figures, highlighting what US commanders say is a marked drop in overall violence.

The number compares with the deadliest month of November 2004 when 137 American troops were slain, a toll by independent website icasualties.org showed. The previous low was in May this year when 19 soldiers were killed.

Since the US-led invasion of March 2003 that toppled now executed dictator Saddam Hussein, a total of 4,125 US troops have been killed in Iraq, according to icasualties.org.

The downward trend began in the middle of last year after a US troop “surge,” although there were two spikes in bloodshed in March and April when fierce fighting erupted between Shia militiamen and US-led forces.

Icasualties.org said the number of Iraqi civilian dead fell from 373 in June to 302 in July, the lowest since April 2005. The toll among Iraqi security forces rose in July to 91 from 77 the previous month.

The commander of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said in an interview published two days ago that overall violence was falling to almost “normal” levels.

But he warned that the trend could be reversed by “sensational attacks” such as two bombings on Monday that rocked Baghdad and the northern oil hub of Kirkuk in which about 56 Iraqis were killed and more than 200 were wounded.

“If you could reduce these sensational attacks further, I think you are almost approaching a level of normal or latent violence,” Petraeus told USA Today.

“The fact that the levels of violence have come down so significantly and stayed down now for some two-and-a-half months... indicates there is a degree of durability.” Citing Petraeus’s comments, US President George Bush hailed the reports of reduced violence in Iraq as a sign of the “durability” of progress there, but cautioned that the gains are still “reversible.” Icasualties.org estimates that a total of 42,922 civilians have died since it began tallying figures in March 2005, but warns that its count cannot be verified and the actual toll is much higher.

The United States and Iraq are still trying to hammer out an agreement governing US troop levels in the country beyond 2008 when the UN mandate covering the presence of foreign soldiers expires.

In principle, Thursday was the deadline set in November by Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to sign a Status of Forces Agreement.

Maliki this month shook the White House by saying he favoured setting a date for the withdrawal of American combat troops in Iraq, where the US force currently totals about 142,500.

The White House had said earlier this month it did not think Baghdad and Washington would meet the July 31 deadline for the pact.

A US embassy official on Thursday confirmed that the negotiations were continuing, describing them as “constructive.” Bush said the “agreement will serve as the foundation for America’s presence in Iraq.” Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bolani said on Monday that he believed they were “moving in the right direction” towards concluding an agreement, despite some opposition in Iraq.

Radical anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said in a statement on Thursday that he objected to a deal with the “occupier,” and urged Iraqis to stand up against the pact.

Asked whether Iraqi troops could fill the void created by a US withdrawal, Bolani said the issue was being evaluated by his ministry against factors such as experience and training of Iraqi forces.

Ten of Iraq’s 18 provinces have so far been handed back to Iraqi control.

“After all that perhaps we can determine, look into the issue of decreasing the forces or decreasing the amount of personnel there,” Bolani said, adding that Iraqi forces had demonstrated their ability to contain the “threat of terrorism.”—AFP