Death Squads Behind Spike in Iraq Killings

Sept. 1, 2006 — -- Sectarian violence in Iraq has become the "core conflict" in Iraq and has created a security situation American military commanders believe is more complex than any they have faced at any time since the U.S. invasion in 2003, a sober Pentagon report released today says.

Death squads -- both Shiite and Sunni, "locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife" -- have been the cause of most of the rise in violence, according to the the most recent of the congressionally mandated reports that are released every three months and provide the Pentagon's assessment of the ongoing situation in Iraq.

"It's a pretty sober report this time, the last quarter has been rough," Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Rodman said.

He noted that the spikes in violence and its sectarian focus are "particularly acute and disturbing."

According to the report, the last three months have seen a 15 percent increase in the number of weekly attacks and Iraqi casualties have spiked 51 percent.

While recognizing that the conditions for a civil war exist in Iraq, it concludes a civil war does not exist in Iraq. Optimistically, the report adds that "movement toward a civil war can be prevented."

According to the report, two key indicators of civil war have not occurred in Iraq.

"There is no parallel government that is attempting to replace the elected government. And the military has remained loyal to the central government. There is no splintering of the military," Rear Admiral William Sullivan of the Joint Staff said.

That doesn't mean, though, that there is not a great deal of concern about the situation. Sullivan said top military and civilian leaders remain worried by the increase in sectarian violence and "are not blind to the possibility that this could continue down the wrong path."

In fact, Sullivan acknowledged that the main concern for military planners right now is not the insurgency, but the "sectarian problem," which he said is "much more politically significant at the moment."

Most responsible for the increase in sectarian violence are the Sunni and Shiite death squads, which the report says are "locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife, with Sunni and Shi'a extremists each portraying themselves as the defenders of their respective sectarian groups."

It is the death squads' targeting of civilians that has boosted the number of civilian casualties. Military statistics included in the report show civilian casualties increased by almost 1,000 a month from the previous quarter.

More somber proof of the rise in death squad activity came from the Baghdad Coroner's Office. Their data showed 1,600 bodies arrived there in June and more than 1,800 bodies in July. 90 percent of those deaths were determined to be the result of death squad executions.

The sectarian violence took form after the February bombing of the Shiite Golden Mosque in Samarra, which was determined to be the work of al Qaeda in Iraq and its former leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Rodman said Zarqawi and his group had been aiming to "stike a blow" and divide the Iraqi people.

"I think in Samarra they hit pay dirt and the system has been shaken by it," he said.