Iraq faces threat of “civil war”
Armed militia are threatening to plunge Iraq into a civil war, according to two senior US politicians.
Republican senators Richard Luger and Jo Biden, both members of the Senate foreign relations committee, believe meeting the deadline for the handover of power will be essential in avoiding further violence.
Their comments come as American soldiers launch a counter offensive against insurgent forces across Iraq.
Since the weekend, more than a dozen US troops have been reported killed after violent clashes with Shia rebels in Baghdad, Fallujah and Basra.
The provisional authority and the Bush administration have vowed to quell the rebellion, but fighting has continued throughout the country today.
“If you have the militia that had not been disarmed and if in fact the worst situation comes the militia begin to fight each other,” Senator Luger said. “That is civil war.”
US soldiers are planning to serve an arrest warrant on the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada Sadr, whose supporters have been blamed for the latest outbreak of violence in Iraq.
