Iraq security 'much better than before' (Iraq’s finance minister)

On the day of a deadly attack against US troops, Iraq’s finance minister said he saw signs of improvement in his country’s security.

Adil Abdel-Mahdi, a leading Shiite politician, said the provisional Iraqi government was trying to improve security for foreign investors and workers.

He said conditions are ”much better than before” as a result of the US-led mission last month to drive insurgents out of the Sunni-dominated city of Fallujah.

In recent weeks, there have been “no kidnappings, no hostages, so this shows that there’s a blow to the terrorists in this respect. I think they will try to continue their acts, but their operations, their profile is lower today than it was before,” he said at a news conference yesterday at the National Press Club.

Abdel-Mahdi did not specifically speak of yesterday’s attack at a military base in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, which a US military spokesman said killed 22 people, including 15 US service members.

(more)

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=128170770&p=yz8y7y476

Tell that to the poor souls who were in the Mess Tent yesterday........