Baghdad No Safer 2 Months Into Surge

Baghdad is no more stable than it was before the American troop surge, the Times reports. With death squads trying to stay off the radar, sectarian executions have dropped in some corners of the city. But executions have given way to increased car bombings, chlorine gas attacks, and the burning of local shops and homes.

Though the surge began two months ago, only about half of the 30,000 additional troops have arrived in Iraq. And as militias have adapted to the bolstered troop presence, early reductions in sectarian violence have been reversed. One American soldier described the situation as a game of cat and mouse: "It's just a really, really smart mouse." (More Iraq stories.)