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In urban warfare where the enemy hides among and behind the general populace, it is necessary to do a building by building search for weapons, enemy combatants, terrorists, etc, to get them out. This require vast numbers of troops. It is much simpler to keep them out than to get them out. Therefore, after time and dangerous work, the Iraqis have taken charge there to keep out the elements.
The violence reduction has to do with what I just described. Once the hidden combatants have been eliminated, they don't have the man power (or woman power of child power or whatever) to have the suicide bombings as they don't have the capacity to get the necessary explosives to the desired targets.
This is why so many of these suicide bombings occur at checkpoints. It's the only way they can attack because they no longer have anything (or at least it is vastly reduced) inside the controlled areas.
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