Pentagon gives gloomy Iraq report By BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON - Sectarian violence is spreading in Iraq and the security problems have become more complex than at any time since the U.S. invasion in 2003, a Pentagon report said Friday.
In a notably gloomy report to Congress, the Pentagon reported that militias have become more entrenched, especially in Baghdad neighborhoods where they are seen as providers of both security and basic social services.
The report described a rising tide of sectarian violence, fed in part by interference from neighboring Iran and Syria and driven by a "Hate for the USA" of religious extremists who oppose the idea of a democratic Iraq.
Death squads targeting mainly Iraqi civilians who are working for the USA, heightening the risk of civil war, the report said.
"Death squads and terrorists are locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife," the report said, adding the USA Military can not stop the strife.
2006-09-01
15:41:15
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