World

Iraqi: U.S. Pullout Will Fuel Civil War

July 9, 2007 / 5:51 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Iraq's foreign minister warned on Monday that a quick American military withdrawal from the country could lead to civil war and the collapse of the government, as pressure on the Bush administration for a pullout grows.

Attacks in Baghdad killed 13 people as prominent Shiite and Sunni politicians called on Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of violence that claimed more than 220 lives, including one of the deadliest attacks of the four-year Iraqi conflict.

The burst of violence comes at a sensitive time. U.S. forces are waging offensives in and around Baghdad aimed at uprooting militants and bringing calm to the capital, and a progress report to Congress is due on July 15. At the same time, several

Republican congressman have joined calls for a withdrawal from Iraq (video)

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Iraqis "understand the huge pressure that will increase more and more in the United States" ahead of the progress report by the U.S. ambassador and top commander in Iraq.

"We have held discussion with members of Congress and explained to them the dangers of a quick pull out (from Iraq) and leaving a security vacuum," Zebari said. "The dangers could be a civil war, dividing the country, regional wars and the collapse of the state."

"In our estimations, until Iraqi forces are ready, there is a responsibility on the United States to stand with the (government) as the forces are being built," he said.

Zebari's warning comes as White House officials debate whether President Bush should start pulling troops out of Iraq to stem the erosion of support for the war among Senate Republicans, according to a report in the New York Times. "Inside the administration, debate is intensifying," the report says.

(AP Photo/Ali Abbas, Pool)

Zebari (seen at left), a Kurd from northern Iraq, also said Turkey has massed 140,000 soldiers on its border with northern Iraq, where the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has bases and launches attacks on Turkish forces.

"Turkey's fears are legitimate but such things can be discussed," Zebari said. "The perfect solution is the withdrawal of the Turkish forces from the borders."

Australia's foreign minister also warned Monday that pulling U.S. coalition troops out of Iraq too soon could provoke a wider war in the Middle East.

Alexander Downer said if Iraq descends into total chaos, there's a "very high risk" other countries will be drawn into the fight. He notes that Saudi Arabia has significant ties with Iraq's Sunni Muslims, while Iran has close links to Iraq's Shiites.

In another sign of Iraq's security woes possibly spilling over the country's borders, the leader of an al Qaeda umbrella group has threatened to wage war against Iran unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq within two months, according to an audiotape.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the group Islamic State in Iraq, said his Sunni fighters have been preparing for four years to battle against Shiite dominated Iran. "We are giving the Persians, and especially the rulers of Iran, a two-month period to end all kinds of support for the Iraqi Shiite government and to stop direct and indirect intervention ... otherwise a severe war is waiting for you," he said in the audiotape released Sunday.

In other developments:

Violence resumed in Baghdad, with a roadside bomb and two cars wired with explosives that killed eight around the capital and the discovery of a body with bullet wounds and torture marks dumped in the street, an apparent victim of sectarian death squads.

Around dawn, police discovered gunmen trying to plant bombs near the security wall surrounding the Sunni district of Azamiyah. In a gun battle that followed, two soldiers and two policemen were killed, police said. There were no immediate reports about the casualties among the gunmen.

Fifty miles north of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi military bus, killing nine Iraqi soldiers and injuring 21, according to an officer with the Iraqi 4th Division who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release the information.
Iraqi security forces' inability to prevent extremists' attacks - like Saturday's devastating suicide truck bombing in the Shiite town of Armili, north of Baghdad, that killed more than 160 people, according to the latest toll from police and officials, has led prominent Shiite and Sunni politicians to call on Iraqi civilians to defend themselves, and has done nothing to alleviate tremendous political pressure on Iraq's leader.

Bombings and living conditions that have improved minimally — if at all — since Iraq's sovereign government took over are combining to bring increasing pressure for change on the shoulders of Iraq's leader.

CBS News has learned that on July 15, a group of senior politicians plan to ask for a no-confidence vote in the Iraqi parliament as the first step to bringing down the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. (Read more)

Senior politicians Sunday called for civilians to take up arms, including the country's Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, who said all Iraqis must "pay the price" for terrorism.

"People have a right to expect from the government and security agencies protection for their lives, land, honor and property," al-Hashemi said in a statement. "But in the case of (their) inability, the people have no choice but to take up their own defense."

He said the government should provide communities with money, weapons and training and "regulate their use by rules of behavior."

The idea of organizing local communities for their own defense has caught on here in recent months following the success of Sunni Arab tribes in Anbar province that took up arms to help drive al Qaeda from their towns and villages.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have said they hope to replicate the "Anbar model" elsewhere in the country, albeit under government supervision and control.

Iraqi commanders say U.S. and Iraqi troops are making progress in a three-pronged security sweep launched in mid-June — one in Baghdad, another to the northeast in Baqouba and the third to the south. The offensives on Baghdad's doorsteps aim to uproot al Qaeda militants and other insurgents using the regions to plan attacks in the capital.

But Saturday's attack on Armili — a town of Shiites from the Turkoman ethnic minority — indicated extremists were moving further north to unprotected regions.

Ali Hashim Mukhtaroglu, deputy head of Iraqi Turkoman Front, said Monday the toll had reached 154 dead and 270 injured, and that 30 people were believed to be buried under the rubble of more than 100 mud-brick homes leveled in the town. Two police officers — Amin and Col. Sherzad Abdullah — said 150 people were killed.

Turkoman leaders accused the security forces of "negligence" and called for the arming of their community. "We demand the Iraqi government form Turkoman military units to protect Turkoman areas and their surroundings," Mukhtaroglu said.

The call for civilians to take up arms in their own defense was echoed Sunday by the country's Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi.

Another prominent Sunni lawmaker, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had failed to provide services and security but he stopped short of saying his followers would seek to topple the Shiite-led government in a no-confidence vote.