Britain's senior military officer in Iraq said on Monday that the country's Sunni-led insurgency was flagging, thanks to a series of recent political and military defeats over the past six months.

Since he arrived in October, guerilla attacks had fallen to 300 a week from 500, thanks largely to a series of setbacks that had “helped to take the wind out of the sails of parts of the insurgency”, Lt Gen Sir John Kiszelysaid in a briefing prior tohis departure later this month.