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Iraq 'on brink of collapse'
19/12/2006 21:35 - (SA)
Baghdad - Iraq is on the brink of total disintegration and could drag its neighbours into a regional war, a leading think-tank said on Tuesday, after the Pentagon confirmed violence was at an all-time high.
The warning from the International Crisis Group came amid lawless chaos in Baghdad, where police were hunting for 16 kidnapped aid workers and a former minister who escaped from jail, allegedly with the help of US hired guns.
The ICG's report called on Washington to distance itself from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's beleaguered government - which has failed to tackle sectarian militias - and reach out to the US's arch-foes, Iran and Syria.
The permanent members of the UN security council and Iraq's six neighbours should engage with all the parties to Iraq's spiralling conflict, it urged, while nevertheless holding out little prospect of success. 'Last opportunity'
"Implementation of the various measures mapped out in this report is one last opportunity. It is at best a feeble hope," the ICG paper said.
"But it is the only hope to spare Iraq from an all-out disintegration, with catastrophic and devastating repercussions for all," it warned.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon's quarterly report into the US military mission in Iraq said violence had soared to the highest level on record, with an average of 959 attacks per week over the past four months - up 22%.
Even this figure is likely to be a gross underestimate of the bloodshed because - as was noted in a highly critical bi-partisan review of US policy released earlier this month - the defence department's figures exclude most attacks.
The panel complained that most attacks that fail to hurt US troops are simply left out of the Pentagon's calculations, meaning that on any given day there could be 10 times more violent acts than noted by the military.
- AFP
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