Rumsfeld: Iraq Not in Civil War
Posted on: Thursday, 9 March 2006, 15:00 CST
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the situation in Iraq doesn't constitute a civil war and the U.S. goal is to keep that conflict from developing.
Rumsfeld, testifying Thursday before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, said the conflict in Iraq is changing from an insurgency to sectarian violence but the overall situation is controllable by Iraqi security forces and multinational forces, The New York Times reported.
Sectarian violence in Iraq flared after the bombings of a Shiite mosque in Samara and subsequent retaliatory attacks on Sunnis. There have been fears the country would sink into civil war, with some 130,000 U.S. troops still on the ground there.
Rumsfeld, the Times reported, said, The plan is to prevent civil war and to the extent one were to occur, to have the -- from a security standpoint -- have the Iraqi security forces deal with it to the extent they're able to.
The committee is considering a $92 billion supplemental budget request from the Bush administration to fund its military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Source: United Press International
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