The debate over whether Iraq is witnessing a civil war continued among Iraqis yesterday after the latest violent attacks deepened the rift between Shiites and Sunnis. The bombing of one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Samarra on Feb. 22 set off a wave of sectarian violence — the worst being last Friday’s bombing of Buratha Mosque that left up to 70 dead. Nevertheless, description of the ongoing violence in Iraq as a “civil war” has been a taboo, as shown by Iraqi politicians’ reaction to recent comments by the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
“There is almost a civil war between the Shiites, Kurds, Sunnis and the groups coming from Asia,” Mubarak said in an interview aired on pan-Arab channel Al-Arabiya late Saturday. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, a key player in regional affairs and a Cairo ally, repeated the sentiment the following day at a press conference. “Fighting among the (Iraqi) people is the definition of a civil war — I do not know what else we could call what’s going on in Iraq other than a civil war,” Saud said.
Mubarak’s comments sparked a storm of rejection by Iraq’s top politicians who are currently rowing over forming a unity government. Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani called allegations of a civil war “surprising” and “based on incorrect information.” Outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari agreed, saying, “The Iraqi people, Sunnis and Shiites, are united, and there is no civil war. There might be unique cases (of sectarian violence) but it is not a civil war.” Perhaps incumbent Iraqi politicians are echoing — albeit unconsciously — the stance of US President George W. Bush. Speaking on the third anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq in March, Bush denied that Iraq had fallen into civil war. “Iraqis took a look and decided not to go to civil war,” Bush said.
While most political figures shy away from calling the current violence a fully-fledged civil war, others are going as far as to deny altogether a sectarian dimension to the attacks. Sheikh Jalaleddin Saghir, a prominent leader in the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, who survived the deadly attack against the Shiite Buratha Mosque last Friday, rejected blaming the Sunnis for the attacks against the Shiites. “We will be not dragged into a civil war that the terrorists, Takfiris (those who brand other Muslims as heretics) and Saddamists want despite of the bloodshed,” Saghir said. “The Sunnis are not guilty. I hold responsible (for the attacks) those who preach terrorism,” he said. However, the head of the National Dialogue Front political party, Saleh Mutlaq, said yesterday that “there is a civil war in Iraq, but this war is rather between the partisan militias and the citizens than between the different sects of the Iraqis.”
Many believe the current wrangling between Iraqi parliamentary blocs to form a national unity government has fueled the escalation of violence as the Kurdish and Sunnis blocs as well as the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution have opposed the re-election of Jaafari, accused by many as failing to curtail violence. “I have called Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari twice last month asking him to stem out the terrorists and Takfiris, but he did not take any action, so we ask the government to tender its resignation because it failed to protect the people,” Saghir said.
