Security gains dramatic, says Iraq Study Group aide("No incoming (mortar fire) into the Green Zone")

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/washington/entries/2007/11/09/baghdad_securit.html

Security in Baghdad has shown “dramatic” improvement, according to the Iraq Study Group’s executive director, Daniel Serwer, who visited the Iraqi capital in mid-October.

“Baghdad’s much quieter than it was,” said Serwer, a former U.S. diplomat. “It’s dramatic. I was there two days and I think I heard two detonations. No incoming (mortar fire) into the Green Zone at all.”

Serwer was the executive director of the Iraq Study Group. Co-chaired by James A. Baker and Lee Hamilton, the congressionally mandated panel concluded a year ago that conditions in Iraq were “grave and deteriorating.”

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“It’s a mixed picture,” said Serwer, a conflict resolution expert with the U.S. Institute of Peace. “But a mixed picture in Baghdad is a significant improvement.”