Amid rising levels of violence and service-member deaths, the US military has admitted its plan to control Baghdad has failed. On Thursday, the Pentagon said violence in the capital has increased by 22 percent in just the last three weeks. This month’s US death toll has reached seventy-three. In what the New York Times calls “one of the most somber assessments of the war by American commanders”, Major General William Caldwell called the current situation “disheartening” and said the US will re-think its strategy.

• Major General William Caldwell: “I think we are getting far beyond my realm to make analogies about the Vietnam war. But I will tell you, that we are very concerned about what we’re seeing in the city and we’re taking a lot of time to go back and look at the Baghdad security plan.”

Despite the announcement the US military will go back to the drawing board, the New York Times reports senior American military officials who have discussed the Baghdad operation say they have no fundamental reworking of the plan in mind.