Topic: 'We are not in civil war': Iraqi president

Media: AFP
Byline: N/A
Date: 07 August 2006

BAGHDAD, Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday
rejected the idea that his country is caught in the grip of a civil war
between the majority Shiites and the formerly privileged Sunni community.

"I don't believe that a civil war is taking place in Iraq," Talabani told a
joint news conference with the commander of US and coalition forces in Iraq,
General George Casey.

"There is more than one Iraqi political force... which opposes civil war,"
he said, naming the ruling Shiite coalition and the Sunni National Concord
Front.

"Therefore, I don't expect a civil war," said Talabani, himself a member of
the Kurdish minority.

Iraq, and particularly Baghdad, has been engulfed in sectarian bloodshed
since February, as tit-for-tat attacks by militias and death squads have
killed thousands of people from both communities.

Bodies of people are found daily across the country, especially in Baghdad,
where kidnappers dump the tortured corpses of the victims by the roadside
and in the Tigris river.

In May and June alone, around 6,000 people were killed in such bloodletting
across Iraq, the United Nations said in a report last month.

Talabani, however, said these killings were mere reactions to major
insurgent attacks.

"When a car bomb explodes in a Hussainiyat (Shiite mosque), markets and
Shiite regions, it is natural there would be a reaction among enthusiastic
Shiite youngsters who find the government unable to maintain security," he
said. "This is a reckless reaction," he added.

Talabani said that Iraqi forces should carry out security missions and that
coalition forces led by the United States act as backup.

"They (coalition troops) should not be the head of the arrow," he said,
adding that their presence in any military mission should not be "very
effective".