As U.S. deaths in Iraq decline, civilian violence is on upswing

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Fourteen were shot at a trading company. At least 90 were kidnapped at other businesses. Bodies have been dumped nightly, bound hand and foot, some tortured. A new brand of violence — a deadly mix of organized crime and sectarian murder — is tearing at Iraq.

A sharp decline in American deaths appears to be the payoff for handing more duties to the Iraqi army, leaving U.S. forces less exposed to attack, but there has been a rise in the slayings of civilian Iraqis.

The tanks in the streets these days aren't American, by and large, but old Russian T-72s driven by Iraqi soldiers. Faces at military checkpoints are increasingly Iraqi.

As of Wednesday, 27 U.S. military personnel had died in March — the lowest monthly American death count since February 2004 and the second-lowest of the war, according to an Associated Press count.

But along with the sharp drop in American deaths has been the huge rise in the number of execution-style killings among Iraqis. Since the beginning of the month, at least 385 civilians — an average of more than 13 a day — have been found slain, the apparent victims of sectarian hatred and settling of old scores after a Shiite shrine was bombed Feb. 22.

Some Iraq officials believe the insurgents simply switched their targets civilians as a way to cause chaos or to fund their terrorist work.

Since the start of March, gunmen — mostly masked, many wearing police uniforms — have stormed at least six Baghdad businesses. On Wednesday, eight people were killed at the al-Ibtikar trading company when they were lined up against a wall and shot, and six others were wounded. The attack followed three assaults on businesses in the capital on Tuesday. Gunmen, many of them in military uniforms and wearing masks and helmets, kidnapped 24 people from two electronics stores and a currency exchange. They also reportedly fled with thousands of dollars.

On Monday, gunmen in military uniforms and masks abducted 16 people from the Saeed Import and Export Co. in central Baghdad.

The incidents were reminiscent of a March 8 attack on a Baghdad security company in which 50 people were abducted.

The violence that has hit Iraqi businesses may be aimed at old-line Sunni business moguls. It could be the work of either common criminal gangs, or of death squads operating in or tolerated by the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry, which controls the police.

The epidemic of execution-like killings continued Wednesday with the discovery of 17 male bodies, 14 of them in one location and three in another. Seventeen bodies were found in a similar state on Tuesday.

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Bush scolds Iraqis: Three months after landmark parliamentary elections, President Bush urged quarreling Iraqi leaders Wednesday to set aside disagreements and forge a coalition government that will rein in illegal militias. "It's about time you get a unity government going," the president said. Bush also countered critics who wonder whether toppling Saddam Hussein caused the current divisions and instability. "In fact, much of the animosity and violence we now see is the legacy of Saddam Hussein. He is a tyrant who exacerbated sectarian divisions to keep himself in power," Bush said during an appearance in Washington.