Tuesday, March 7, 2006
No Civil War Today in Iraq
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday rejected suggestions Iraq is engulfed in a civil war and claimed media reports have exaggerated the violence since an attack on a a revered Shiite mosque.
"I do not believe they are in a civil war today," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. But he said "there has always been a potential for civil war."
Rumsfeld spoke nearly two weeks after the Feb. 22 bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra, which has touched off violent reprisals between sects that have killed hundreds of Iraqis.
Hoping to keep Iraqi efforts to form a unity government moving forward, U.S. officials have acknowledged concern about the violence, but repeatedly denied that they fear a full-scale civil war is erupting.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday rejected suggestions Iraq is engulfed in a civil war and claimed media reports have exaggerated the violence since an attack on a a revered Shiite mosque.
"I do not believe they are in a civil war today," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. But he said "there has always been a potential for civil war."
Rumsfeld spoke nearly two weeks after the Feb. 22 bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra, which has touched off violent reprisals between sects that have killed hundreds of Iraqis.
Hoping to keep Iraqi efforts to form a unity government moving forward, U.S. officials have acknowledged concern about the violence, but repeatedly denied that they fear a full-scale civil war is erupting.
