/ 2 September 2006

Pentagon warns of civil war in Iraq

Iraq’s embattled coalition government was to set up a military headquarters to take command of its armed forces on Saturday, as a report from the Pentagon warned the country is close to civil war.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was due to take his place at the head of the military chain of command at a ceremony to create Iraqi Joint Headquarters, which will gradually take over control of Iraqi forces from a United States-led coalition.

This move — along with Iraqi figures showing that civilian casualties from insurgent attacks fell last month — was hailed as a sign that Iraq is on course to lead itself out of the chaos and bloodshed of the past three years.

But a quarterly report from the US Department of Defence painted a more sombre picture of a still powerful anti-government insurgency and mounting violence between the bitterly divided Sunni and Shi’ite communities.

Since its last report, the Pentagon said, ”the core conflict in Iraq changed into a struggle between Sunni and Shia extremists”.

The report covered the period between May and the end of July, which was marked by Iraq’s worst bloodshed since the US-led invasion of March 2003.

”The average number of weekly attacks increased 15% over the previous reporting period average … Iraqi casualties increased by 51% compared to the previous quarter,” the report said.

Iraqi and US officials in Baghdad say that civilian casualties dropped significantly in August thanks, they say, to a beefed-up security plan in the war-torn capital and the increasing competence of Iraqi security forces.

Nevertheless, the last few days of the month were marked by a series of bloody attacks and clashes with both Sunni insurgents and Shi’ite militias.

The capital now stands braced for possible revenge attacks by Shi’ite militiamen after suspected Sunni insurgents on Thursday launched a barrage of bomb and rocket attacks that killed 67 people in Shi’ite east Baghdad.

Death squads and terrorists ”are locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife”, the Pentagon said.

”Concern about civil war within the Iraqi civilian population and among some defence analysts has increased in recent months,” it added. ”The security situation is currently at its most complex state since the initiation of Operation Iraq Freedom.”

Meanwhile, in a sign of the violence still gripping Iraq, two bombs exploded in north Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding more than 20 people.

A security official said the first bomb wounded three members of a police patrol in a mainly Sunni area and that, when bystanders gathered at the scene to help, a second blast ripped through the crowd.

Iraqi police also reported that four civilian truck drivers suspected by insurgents of carrying supplies for US forces were ambushed and killed north of Samarra.

On Friday, a US aircraft bombed a building in the town of Yusufiyah, south of Baghdad, where a three-man insurgent mortar team was thought to be hiding.

”The first bomb hit the vicinity of the target and struck a portion of a nearby building. A second bomb hit the target and destroyed it. Ground and aerial reports indicate bystanders may have been injured,” a US statement said.

Saturday’s ceremony will start the process of putting Iraq’s navy, air force and 10 army divisions under al-Maliki’s operational command, US officers said.

The Iraqi army has 115 000 soldiers — fewer than the 141 000 US troops in the country — but when local and national police are taken into account al-Maliki can field about 278 000 personnel, the Pentagon said.

This month the government will take charge of security in a second of Iraq’s 18 provinces, but US commander General George Casey said this week it will be 12 to 18 months before Iraqi forces can operate without US support. — Sapa-AFP