As the top U.S. military commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus heads for a scheduled testimony on the Capitol Hill by Monday noon, he is expected to be grilled on data of the Iraq violence.
Joined by Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Petraeus will begin his testimony before a joint session of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees at 430 GMT, CNN reported.
He will address the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.
At the Capitol Hill, Petraeus is expected to back the assertion with data indicating a lower incidence of roadside bombs and car bombs in Baghdad, capital of Iraq, in the months leading up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins this week.
However, the methodology the military is using to gauge violence in Baghdad has come under fire.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, a vocal critic of the war in Iraq, has accused the White House of twisting data to suit its needs.
Durbin's criticism was echoed by David Walker, head of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, who also raised questions about how the statistics were compiled.
Bush administration officials insisted that Petraeus and Crocker will be giving their own assessments, unfiltered by the White House.
A CNN poll taken last month found about two-thirds of Americans which account for 64 percent of the total population oppose the Iraq war, and 72 percent say even if Petraeus reports progress in Iraq, that won't change their opinion.
The poll also found a great deal of skepticism about the report with 53 percent saying they do not trust Petraeus to give an accurate assessment of the situation in Iraq.
The U.S. military data obtained by CNN indicates that 165 Iraqis were murdered in Baghdad last month, a slight increase from the previous two months.
Source: Xinhua
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