by Jay Deshmukh
BAGHDAD - Nine US soldiers were killed in Iraq, the military said on Monday, as their commander General David Petraeus told the US Congress that a premature drawdown of troops from Iraq would be devastating.
Seven soldiers were killed in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad on Monday, the military said, adding that 11 other soldiers were wounded in the accident.
Two detainees who were being transported by the soldiers were also killed, the military said, while a third detainee was wounded.
Another soldier died when his vehicle overturned east of Baghdad on Monday, the military said in a separate statement.
The military also announced the death on Sunday of another soldier from wounds sustained when insurgents fired a rocket at his patrol in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk.
The latest fatalities took the military's losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,760, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
US war commander Petraeus told a crucial hearing of the House of Representatives Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees that a "premature" drawdown of US troops from Iraq would be "devastating."
The four-star general said that though the 168,000 US troop number in Iraq could start to be reduced to and beyond levels which existed before the current troop surge, further decisions on force numbers could not be made until next March.
"In my professional judgment, it would be premature to make recommendations on the pace of such reductions at this time," Petraeus said.
Earlier Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Iraq's parliament that civil war has been averted in the country and that violence is down 75 percent.
In a generally upbeat assessment, Maliki said however that despite improvements in security in Baghdad, Iraqi forces still needed time to take control of security.
"The security situation witnessed a noted improvement recently in Baghdad," Maliki told lawmakers. "But we still need more time and efforts to receive the security file."
His comments largely matched those of Petraeus who told the Congress that the goals of the US military surge were being met.
"We have succeeded in preventing Iraq from sliding into a civil war in spite of all the destabilising actions by local and international groups," Maliki said.
Levels of violence in Baghdad and the western province of Anbar, he added, had dropped 75 percent since the much-vaunted US troop "surge" was launched in February.
Maliki also said more than 14,000 fighters linked to Al-Qaeda have turned against the insurgency and joined the Iraqi armed forces.
Presenting his report card to parliament, Maliki said about 6,000 families had returned to their homes in Baghdad, while 5,941 suspected "terrorists" had been detained.
Of these, 3,396 have been released, he said. A total of 1,914 bombs had been defused and "thousands" of arms caches recovered.
Soon after Maliki's address, the authorities announced the easing of the nightly curfew in Baghdad during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starting later this week.
Brigadier General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, said the curfew in Baghdad would come into effect at midnight instead of 11:00 pm but would continue to be enforced until 5:00 am.
Violence continued to rage on Monday, with insurgents exploding a truck bomb in the northern province of Nineveh that killed five people, the interior ministry's director of operations Abdel Karim Khalaf told AFP.
The US military also said on Monday it is to build a base on Iraq's border with Iran to stem what it charges is rampant smuggling of weapons and fighters.
The base, which the military describes as a "life support area", will be set up in Badrah, in the central province of Wasit.
The military said the base is "not really permanent, although it will be manned 24/7 and will be used for as long as necessary."
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09/10/2007 18:46 GMT