U.K. Official: Iraq Likely To Split Up
Report Says British Ambassador Warned Iraq Moving Toward Civil War
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Play CBS Video Video Key Bank In Baghdad Bombed About 70 people are dead in Baghdad after another surge in sectarian violence. Among the targets are a military convoy and a key bank in the Iraqi capital. Tracie Strahan reports.
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Video Baghdad Cries For Help Dozens of people die violently every day in Baghdad. Mark Strassmann reports on the fight to regain control of the city and the people who are hoping for peace.
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Video Dozens Killed In Baghdad Just two days after President Bush ordered more troops into Baghdad, insurgents took aim at a religiously mixed neighborhood. It was an attack from both the air and the ground. Susan Roberts reports.
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The shadows of two Iraqi bystanders are cast on the ground of a bombed soccer field in Baghdad, Aug. 3, 2006, next to a sport shoe that once belonged to one of the victims killed in the attack. (Getty Images/Karim Sahib)
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An Iraqi mother cries for her son Mohammed A. Jabbar, 19, killed in Wednesday's bomb attacks on a soccer field outside of a local morgue, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2006, in Baghdad, Iraq (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
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Iraqi army soldiers secure the site where a car bomb exploded on August 1, 2006 in the Karrada district of Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 22. (Getty Images/Wathiq Khuzaie)
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Iraqis wounded in a massive car bomb are carried away from the scene, Tuesday morning, Aug. 1, 2006, in the Karradah neighborhood of Baghdad. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
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Iraqis burn an American flag during a protest march denouncing Israel's Sunday attack in southern Lebanon, Monday, July 31, 2006, in the Shiite area of Sadr City, Baghdad. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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The parting assessment from Ambassador William Patey, who left his diplomatic post in Baghdad last week, came in a memo to top British officials, including Prime Minister Tony Blair and military commanders.
"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," the BBC quoted Patey's memo as saying.
Patey said Iraq's "position is not hopeless," but predicted Iraq could remain volatile for the next decade.
He said even President Bush's "lowered expectation" of a government that can sustain itself, defend itself and govern itself "must remain in doubt."
Meanwhile, in ongoing violence in Iraq, at least 12 people were killed and 29 injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle exploded in the center of the capital Thursday. At least 13 other people were killed or found dead in various parts of the country.
In other developments:
The motorcycle attack near Rusafi Square in the Rashid Street shopping area apparently targeted fruit and vegetable vendors and commercial stalls, said police Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali. He said the bomb was hidden in a parked motorcycle.
Several shops caught fire and many of the victims were seen being driven in private cars to hospitals as ambulances were obstructed by concrete road blocks and razor wires.
The motorcycle was blown to bits, its front wheel assembly hurled several meters (feet) away. A mixture of oil and blood formed small pools on the ground, which was littered with peaches and other fruit. Cardboard boxes that had held the fruit were strewn everywhere.
A taxi driver said he saw the motorcycle exploding and hitting a vegetable vendor and two stalls run by two brothers. "One sold tea and the other sold cigarettes. I saw a woman burning," said the man who left the scene without identifying himself.
Also Thursday, gunmen shot to death four people in separate incidents in Baghdad, Amarah, Mosul and Basra, police said. And the bodies of nine men were found floating in separate places in the Tigris River, police and morgue officials said. At least two of the bodies were blindfolded, bound and shot.
On Wednesday, sectarian and political violence claimed at least 53 lives, including 11 young soccer players and spectators who died when two bombs exploded in a field in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. More than 70 people were killed on Tuesday.
According to figures compiled from Iraqi security and health department figures, more than 1,000 civilians, 135 members of security forces and 143 insurgents were killed nationwide in July. In addition, 1,800 civilians were injured.
The surge in sectarian violence has prompted the U.S. command to send at least 3,700 American soldiers from the northern city of Mosul to reclaim the capital's streets from Sunni insurgents, Shiite militias, rogue police, criminals and freelance gunmen.
U.S. officials have been pressing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, to disband the Shiite militias and make overtures to Sunni insurgent groups.
However, the militias draw strength from the disorder they help create because many Iraqis are losing confidence in the police and army, preferring to rely on gunmen from their own sect for protection.
©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
