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Mortar attack on pilgrims

Civil war has broken out: Allawi

BAGHDAD: On the eve of the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion, American troops clashed with gunmen north and west of Baghdad on Sunday and militants fired a mortar round into Karbala, the holy city south of Baghdad where a million Shia pilgrims assembled for a major religious commemoration.

Iraqis in the capital expressed unease with the increasing violence, which they said they hoped would have ended by now.

``It is a painful anniversary — we were expecting that Iraq would get better,'' Munthir Rasheed said. ``But it is completely in reverse. Iraq has passed through three years which are the worst in its history.''

On Sunday, Iraqi police said eight civilians, including a child, were killed in clashes between U.S. troops and gunmen in Duluiyah, 75 km north of Baghdad. The town is located in Iraq's Sunni heartland where the Iraqi army and U.S. forces opened an airborne campaign last week to hunt down militants.

The Americans said it was the largest ``air assault'' operation since the 2003 invasion.

Official arrested

During operations in Duluiyah, police said, U.S. troops arrested Col. Farouq Khalil, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official, after raiding his house. The American military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier, it said scores of suspected militants had been detained.

Elsewhere, two civilians were killed and 10 wounded when gunmen attacked U.S. troops stationed at the Governor's office in Ramadi, 115 km west of Baghdad. Assailants in southwest Baghdad gunned down a man as he was leaving a Shia mosque, police said.

Bodies found

In the capital, police found the bullet-riddled bodies of three men bound hand and foot and dumped in a sewage treatment plant in the southeast neighbourhood of Rustamiyah.

Iraq's former Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said the increasing attacks across the country can only be described as a civil war, and that the United States and Europe could be touched by spreading violence, according to an interview aired on Sunday.

``It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more,'' Mr. Allawi told the British Broadcasting Corp. ``If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is.''

The mortar round fired at the holy city of Karbala landed in a parking lot 1 km from the shrine that is the destination of Shia Muslims mourning Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammed's grandson, in an annual pilgrimage. No one was hurt.

The Governor of Karbala said more than 3 million pilgrims had arrived in the city.

In a U.S. radio address, U.S. President George W. Bush said the violence in Iraq ``has created a new sense of urgency'' among Iraqi leaders to form such a government.

AP

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