Annan warns of civil war as Iraq bombs kill scores

[stu]

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday Iraq was in danger of descending into civil war, as insurgents killed more than 30 people in a fresh wave of bomb attacks ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.

 

Annan, opening an international aid conference for Iraq, said: "If current patterns of alienation and violence persist much longer, there is a grave danger that the Iraqi state will break down, possibly in the midst of full-scale civil war."

 

Bracing Baghdad for an expected increase in attacks by al Qaeda and other Sunni militant groups fighting the Shi'ite-led government, U.S. and Iraqi officials are planning to shield the capital from car bombers by sealing off its entrances with checkpoints and trenches. Ramadan starts next week.

 

However, suicide bombers and gunmen have staged deadly attacks in the past two days to the north and the west of the capital, where U.S. forces have diverted troops from the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province to boost security in Baghdad.

 

On Sunday, a wave of car bombs killed 23 people in ethnically mixed Kirkuk, a disputed city on one of Iraq's most volatile fault lines. Monday's attacks hit a police recruiting center in Anbar's capital, Ramadi, and a market in the north.

 

With bloodshed killing thousands and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February, U.S. and Iraqi officials have voiced fears that Iraq is being pushed ever closer to inter-communal war.

 

Iraq's neighbors fear tension could spill over, igniting a region with a similar ethnic and religious mix.

 

Annan's comments before a U.N.-sponsored conference of donors were among his bluntest.

 

"The most immediate task is to broaden support for the kind of action -- at the national, regional and international levels -- that can bring Iraq back from the brink," he said.

 

In Monday's worst bloodshed, a bomb killed 22 people in a market in Tal Afar, north of Baghdad, local police said. Police in nearby Mosul said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber.

 

Earlier, a suicide car bomber killed 13 people in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Police Captain Ahmed Ali said the driver blew himself up outside the center as men gathered to join the force.

 

Sunni insurgents frequently attack recruiting centers for the Iraqi army and police, key parts of Washington's plans to withdraw its forces and allow Iraqis to take over security.

 

The violence, on a day in which six Shi'ites were killed as families were fleeing their homes near Baghdad, occurred as Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish legislators argued over the issues of federalism and reforming the constitution.

 

BREAKUP THREAT

 

Failure to resolve both threaten to break up Iraq.

 

Shi'ites, who dominate the government and the parliament, wanted the assembly on Tuesday to discuss a bill that would allow forming a "super region" in the oil-rich Shi'ite south, as envisaged by some Shi'ite leaders.

 

Minority Sunnis, once dominant under Saddam Hussein, fear federalism will break up Iraq and cut them off from its oil wealth in the north and south. They demand amendments to the constitution to guarantee their rights in a centralized state.

 

After marathon discussions, leaders agreed to set up parliamentary commissions to deal with both issues at the same time. Deep differences over Iraq's layout remain, however.

 

"We have agreed not to present the bill to parliament on Tuesday and allow more time for discussion," a senior Shi'ite source told Reuters at the end of a meeting.

 

As U.S. and Iraqi forces struggle to contain violence, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government said on Monday it was ready to take over security control of a second of Iraq's 15 non- Kurdish provinces from foreign occupying forces this week.

 

The southern province of Dhi Qar, now policed by Italian troops under British command, will follow Muthana province.

 

Maliki says his forces should be in charge of most of Iraq by the end of 2006 but other cabinet members are more cautious.

 

Iraq also announced it assumed command of its 4th army division, the second of 10 divisions now under Iraqi control.

 

Under a plan the United States hopes will weed out sectarian death squads in its ranks, Iraq's police will undergo a month-long re-training course.

 

Sunnis say Shi'ite militia operating inside the police are partly to blame for dozens of bodies being dumped in Baghdad every day. Shi'ites deny this.

 

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