Generals Warn Iraq Civil War Possible

(CBS/AP)  Two of the Pentagon's most senior generals conceded to Congress on Thursday that the surge in sectarian violence in Baghdad in recent weeks means Iraq may descend into civil war.

"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:

Thousands of followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr converged on Baghdad Thursday for a rally in support of Hezbollah as the Shiite guerrilla group battles Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier, critically wounded in Iraq on May 29, was released from a Maryland hospital Wednesday and will continue her rehabilitation on an outpatient basis.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Thursday, bringing with him a $29 million loan to jump-start Iraq's economic development.

Two American soldiers Thursday described in gruesome detail how their comrades allegedly killed three blindfolded Iraqi detainees. The soldiers testified during a military hearing to decide if the four soldiers should face a military court-martial on murder charges for allegedly killing the Iraqis after detaining them in a house on May 9 near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Evidence collected on the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including unarmed women and children, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

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.

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