US sees light in Iraq's darkness

BAGHDAD: The United States ambassador to Iraq assured US voters on Tuesday that victory can still be achieved in this war-torn country within a year as long as Iraqi leaders live up to their promises.

At a news conference that was briefly plunged into darkness by one of Baghdad's daily power cuts, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad described the battle to save Iraq from extremists as 'the defining challenge of our era'.

But as he and the top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, briefed reporters in the heavily-fortified Green Zone, gunfire and bomb blasts echoed around the city beyond as the war's grim death toll continued to mount.

The number of American soldiers killed in the first weeks of October hit 91, putting it on track to be the bloodiest month for US forces since November 2004, when they famously fought an intense battle in Fallujah.