U.S. officials exclude car bombs in touting drop in Iraq violence

Wed, Apr. 25, 2007 | U.S. officials exclude car bombs in touting drop in Iraq violence
| By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.

Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. ...