Pentagon says situation in Iraq can become critical
Iraq-USA, Military, 3/4/2006

The commander of the American forces in Iraq Gen. George Casey said that the crisis of sectarian violence which recently intensified because of an attack on the shrines of the two al-Askari Imams in Samara in February had passed, but he refused to rule out the possibility of a civil war eruption.

Casey said " Iraq is not out of danger. There is still a terrorist threat here that is working to foment continued sectarian violence. I think they tried. They tried to have this the straw that broke the camel's back, and it failed. And the Iraqis, as I said, rose to the occasion. There are still sectarian tensions here now that the Iraqis are continuing to work their way through, and we will all continue to stay on the front foot here as we work our way through this sensitive period.Will it affect the troop withdrawals? This has been going on for about 10 days.. It certainly is something that we will consider in our decisions, but I'm not really into the process here of making decisions, and so this -- we'll see how this plays out over the coming weeks and months."

Casey told journalists at the headquarters of the US defense department in Washington that no decision has been taken yet on whether he will submit recommendations to the US President George W. Bush on reducing the level of the American forces in Iraq.

Casey added that the Iraqis are still under the threat of the attacks which he warned it will target obstructing the efforts of forming a national unity government.

He indicated that continued cooperation between the American forces and the commitment of the Iraqis to form the government weaken the opportunity of the eruption of such a civil war.

On the other hand, Casey stressed that his country's army will continue paying sums to the Iraqi mass media in order to publish reports that serve the American forces.

Asked about reported problems posed by private Iraqi militias, Casey said there have been reports in Baghdad of Iraqi security forces assisting militias, and he indicated that this was an issue that the Iraqi government must address quickly. In the near term, he said the government would have to disarm the militias and integrate members into some of its ministries.

Casey also said that in most cases where militias encountered direct challenges from Iraqi security forces, militia members yielded to authority without much further violence.

He said the role of US forces is to degrade the insurgency sufficiently so that the increasingly capable security forces can contain it by themselves. "I think we'll continue that role here over the course of the next year," he added.

Previous Stories:
  Acts of killing in Iraq   (3/3/2006)
  Acts of detention continued in Iraq   (3/2/2006)
  45 Iraqis killed in attacks   (3/2/2006)
  Bush: Iraqis face either chaos or unity   (3/1/2006)
  US says number of attacks in Iraq exaggerated   (2/28/2006)
  Rice confident Iraq would achieve unity government   (2/25/2006)
  Curfew, state of alert, after Iraqi shrine explosion   (2/23/2006)
  US helping Iraq develop professional police force   (2/18/2006)
  Six marines killed in Iraq   (2/10/2006)

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