US University In Kurdistan.

The fourth US university in the Arab world and the first in Iraq has opened in Suleymaniah, in eastern Kurdistan close to the Iranian border. Officials of the Erbil-based Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) say this institution is eventually to be expanded and could have branches in other parts of Kurdistan.

There are plans for at least another American university to be set up in the Arab part of Iraq. An APS source in Baghdad on Dec. 1 said efforts to establish such an institution were part of a private US initiative encouraged by Washington and the American embassy in the Iraqi capital.

A Chance: Anthony Cordesman, of the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies wrote in the FT of Nov. 28 that a change in US tactics and the Sunni tribal uprising in Anbar province, had sharply reduced the violence in some important parts of Iraq. "The violence and numbers of dead are down to the levels of spring 2006, before the escalation of civil violence that tore the country apart. The worst fighting is now concentrated in and around the mixed areas in Diyala. Large parts of Baghdad and many formerly hostile towns in the west are relatively secure. The number of improvised explosive device attacks has also declined".

He said how much of that was due to Iranian restraint, improved US tactics and technology or less active Shi'ite hostility to coalition forces was "as unclear as how long the drop will last", adding: "US and Iraqi forces are scoring important, if regional, tactical victories. However, these cover only western and central Iraq and may well be temporary. For all the claims that the 'surge' worked, it is clear that it did not work purely on its own. The build-up of US forces and change in tactics from staying in bases to 'win and hold' have accomplished a great deal". But it was only the combination of the tribal uprising in Anbar, the build-up of troops and the change in US tactics which prevented al-Qaeda and its supporters from dispersing to the areas around Baghdad and intensifying the fighting in central Iraq.

Cordesman wrote: "The US team in Iraq deserves great credit for reacting to the Sunni tribal uprising in Anbar, supporting and co-opting it and broadening it to other areas. But that effort may be wasted if the Iraqi government continues to equivocate in allowing the Sunnis to join the police and security services, and if Iraq's factions cannot agree on how to share the nation's power and wealth. Everything depends on converting a US-led military success into Iraqi political accommodation. Yet, while the US and Iraqi forces have scored gains in Baghdad, and west and central Iraq, these are fragile and need to be consolidated by bringing Arab Sunnis fully back into Iraq as a nation".

The need for decisive political action goes beyond the uprising in Anbar. Unlike US estimates, Iraqi statistics do not show a drop in violence in the Baghdad area. Baghdad is kept secure only by US force. The Shi'ite militias are "largely intact".