Another Grim Milestone... Iraqis Return to Baghdad

US fatalities are down in Iraq:

(LA Times)

Violent Deaths are down in Iraq:

(Aswat Aliraq)

Now, another grim milestone...
Iraqi civilians are returning to Baghdad.
The AP reported:

BAGHDAD (AP) - In a dramatic turnaround, more than 3,000 Iraqi families driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned to their homes in the past three months as sectarian violence has dropped, the government said Saturday.
Saad al-Azawi, his wife and four children are among them. They fled to Syria six months ago, leaving behind what had become one of the capital's more dangerous districts—west Baghdad's largely Sunni Khadra region.

The family had been living inside a vicious and bloody turf battle between al-Qaida in Iraq and Mahdi Army militiamen. But Azawi said things began changing, becoming more peaceful, in August when radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to stand down nationwide...

...U.S. officials say, al-Qaida overplayed its hand with Iraq's Sunnis, who practice a moderate version of Islam. American forces were quick to capitalize on the upheaval, welcoming former Sunni enemies as colleagues in securing what was once the most dangerous region of the country.

And as 30,000 additional U.S. forces arrived for the crackdown in Baghdad and central Iraq, the American commander, Gen. David Petraeus, began stationing many of them in neighborhood outposts. The mission was not only to take back control but to foster neighborhood groups like the one in Khadra to shake off al-Qaida's grip.

What's next?... Safe streets?
It looks like democrats are going to have to make some changes to that 2006 platform on defeat.

UPDATE: Malcommxpark notes that there were more murders in Philly last month than soldiers lost in Iraq.

UPDATE 2: Anbar Sunni leaders stress on partnership with the US.
Hat Tip BG

UPDATE 3: Matt Sanchez writes on Iraq:

But while sectarian violence has plummeted, too many media outlets have stopped reporting on what is, by far, the most defining event of this century.

A free people need a free press, but through omission, exaggeration, bias and just flat-out deceit, the American public has been taken for a ride – and we will all be paying a price.

And, Michelle Malkin reports on the growing number of days when no one was killed in Iraq.