Top US general warns of Iraq civil war [video report]

An Iraqi man is comforted after his son was killed by a bomb at a soccer field. Picture / Reuters

BAGHDAD - The top US general in the Middle East has said sectarian violence in Iraq could lead to civil war, a warning underscored by an attack on a Shi'ite wedding party that killed five people.

"Sectarian violence probably is as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular," Army General John Abizaid said. "If not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war."

Abizaid, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee with Marine Corps General Peter Pace, the most senior US military general, and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said the violence in Baghdad hurt prospects for reducing US troop levels in Iraq, now at about 133,000.

Rumsfeld, in often tense exchanges with senators, warned against pulling US troops out of Iraq prematurely. He said that would be seen as a victory by extremists who want to control a region extending beyond the Middle East.

President Jalal Talabani said on Wednesday Iraqi forces could take over security in all governorates by the year's end.

But Abizaid played down prospects for reducing US troop levels in Iraq this year because of violence in Baghdad.

"It's possible to imagine some reductions in forces, but I think the most important thing to imagine is Baghdad coming under the control of the Iraqi government," he said.

The Pentagon last week agreed to send more than 3000 troops to Baghdad to help US-trained Iraqi troops take back the streets from militias and criminal gangs after an earlier crackdown by Iraqi security forces failed to stem the violence.

Violence in Iraq's capital and other restive areas is claiming around 100 lives every day, most apparent victims of a surge in sectarian killings between majority Shi'ites and once dominant minority Sunnis.

US officials say the communal bloodletting now poses a greater threat to stability than the Sunni-led insurgency against the US-backed government of national unity.

Police said a bomb buried in rubbish exploded among street vendors in central Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 32.

Police in Yusufiya, a town in the so-called "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad, said gunmen shot dead five people at a Shi'ite wedding party.

A dire warning over the country's future also came in a leaked diplomatic cable from Britain's outgoing ambassador.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the main thrust of ambassador William Patey's final cable to London from his Baghdad post was similar to comments Patey has made in public - that Britain should stay the course.

But excerpts quoted by public broadcaster the BBC suggested a far more pessimistic assessment.

"The prospect of a low intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy," Patey wrote in the cable, addressed to Blair.

"Even the lowered expectation of President (George W.) Bush for Iraq - a government that can sustain itself, defend itself and govern itself and is an ally in the war on terror - must remain in doubt."

Patey also expressed concern over the growing power of the Shi'ite militia headed by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is part of the ruling Shi'ite Alliance.

"If we are to avoid a descent into civil war and anarchy then preventing the (Mehdi Army) from developing into a state within a state, as Hizbollah has done in Lebanon, will be a priority," he wrote, according to the BBC.

- REUTERS