FROM REUTERS, OF ALL PLACES, THIS SEEMS LIKE GOOD NEWS:

A row of beds lies empty in the emergency ward of Baghdad’s Yarmouk Hospital. The morgue, which once overflowed with corpses, is barely a quarter full.

Doctors at the hospital, a barometer of bloodshed in the Iraqi capital, say there has been a sharp fall in victims of violence admitted during a seven-month security campaign.

Last month the fall was particularly dramatic, with 70 percent fewer bodies and half the number of wounded brought in compared to July, hospital director Haqi Ismail said.

Via Captain Ed, who has more thoughts and observes: “Oddly, this did not get much play in the American media yesterday.”

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.