Generals Warn Iraq Civil War Possible
Gen. John Abizaid Says Sectarian Violence Is 'As Bad As I Have Seen It'
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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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Gen. John Abizaid told Congress on Thursday that the sectarian violence in Iraq could lead to a civil war. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discusses Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror, during an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington Thursday, Aug. 3, 2006. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
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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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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
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Interactive Saddam's Judgment Background on the former Iraqi leader's alleged crimes, his life and capture, plus video and photos.
"Iraq could move toward civil war" if the violence is not contained, Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I have seen it," he said, adding that the top priority in Iraq is to secure the capital, where factional violence has surged in recent weeks despite efforts by the new Iraqi government to stop the fighting.
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the panel, "We do have the possibility of that devolving into civil war." He added that this need not happen and stressed that ultimately it depends on the Iraqis more than on the U.S. military.
"Shiite and Sunni are going to have to love their children more than they hate each other," Pace said, before the tensions can be overcome. "The weight of that must be on the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government."
President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have steadfastly refused to call the situation in Iraq a civil war, although Rumsfeld at a news conference on Wednesday acknowledged that the violence is increasing.
In the latest violence in Iraq, a bomb strapped to a motorcycle exploded Thursday in the center of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and injuring 29, police said. At least 13 other people were killed or found dead Thursday across the country, including nine bodies found floating in the Tigris River – some of them bound and with bullet wounds in their bodies.
In other developments:
The U.S. commanders' concessions about the threat of civil war came just three months before congressional elections in which Bush administration policy in Iraq looms as a defining issue. Many voters have tired of the 3-year-old war, which has cost more than 2,500 U.S. lives and more than a quarter billion taxpayer dollars.
©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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