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Allawi says civil war is already on(Turkish Daily News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims gathered in the sacred Iraqi city of Kerbala on Sunday for a religious event held under tight security as a top politician said Iraq was already in a sectarian civil war. Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was pessimistic about the future, saying Iraq was nearing the "point of no return" on a path toward all-out military conflict. Allawi, a secular Shiite appointed under U.S. supervision in 2004 and whose major offensives against both Shiite and Sunni guerrillas failed to halt insurgencies, warned that Iraq had already plunged into sectarian civil war. "It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is," he told BBC television on Sunday In Baghdad, Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders were still struggling to form a national unity government more than three months after elections, raising fears that a political vacuum will play into the hands of insurgents and fuel violence. Standing beside Shiite and Sunni leaders at a news conference, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, on Sunday backed a call by an Iraqi Shiite leader for the talks with Iran, which Washington accuses of meddling in Iraqi affairs. "I am one of the people who supports this. The problem of Iraq has become an international one," said Talabani, who played down concerns that such talks would deepen divisions between political parties. Sunni Arabs are deeply suspicious of the strong ties between Iran and its fellow Shiites leading the Baghdad government. In Tehran, an Iranian government official said: "We have agreed to start talks with America on Iraq. Particularly on the timetable for departure of occupying forces." |