Lisa
September 18th, 2006, 11:04 PM
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U.N. chief: Iraq in 'grave danger' of civil war
POSTED: 2104 GMT (0504 HKT), September 18, 2006
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Just hours after a suicide bomber killed 20 people in northern Iraq, U.N. chief Kofi Annan said Monday that the nation is in "grave danger" of falling into civil war.
At least 17 people were wounded in Monday's attack, when a bomber detonated an explosive vest near a line of Iraqis waiting for propane gas cylinders in Tal Afar, police said.
U.N. Secretary-General Annan, speaking at a meeting in New York attended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, praised the nation's adoption of a new constitution. But he also issued a warning about the troubled region.
Annan said "if current patterns of alienation and violence persist much further, there is a grave danger the Iraqi state will break down, possibly in the midst of full-scale civil war."
The meeting took place at the annual General Assembly session in New York, that is attended by many world leaders, including President Bush.
Annan urged Iraqi leaders to crack down on sectarian killings that have left thousands of people dead since the February bombing of a revered Shiite Muslim shrine, and to step up efforts to resolve religious and ethnic differences.
In response, Talabani said the government's security plan was showing signs of success, with a marked drop in reported incidents of violence in Baghdad in the last month, Reuters reported.
Attack in Ramadi
In addition to Monday's violence in Tal Afar, a suicide car bomber attacked a police station in Ramadi -- west of Baghdad -- killing two police officers and wounding 26 Iraqi security forces, an Iraqi interior ministry spokesman said.
The car bombing was followed minutes later by a second suicide car bomber, but that attacker did not cause any casualties at the al-Hurriya police station, the spokesman said.
Sunday, four car bomb attacks in less than three hours in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk left at least 23 people dead and 66 wounded, police told CNN.
The victims were police and civilians, officials said.
The first attack, carried out by a suicide car bomber, took place at 10 a.m. near the criminal investigation division of Kirkuk's police building, police said.
Ten minutes later, a suicide car bomber detonated outside a building housing an organization for children, and 20 minutes after that, a parked car bomb exploded outside a mosque, police said.
The fourth car bomb exploded at 12:30 p.m. on a street in the center of Kirkuk, which is 235 miles (380 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
Farther south, in Baquba, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol around 12:30 p.m., killing two Iraqi police officers and wounding three others, police told CNN.
Last week, more than 150 bodies were found dumped across Baghdad in killings authorities believe resulted from Sunni-Shiite sectarian hostilities.
Other developments
Tribes in one of Iraq's most volatile provinces have joined to fight the insurgency in their region, calling on the government and the U.S.-led military coalition to give them weapons, a prominent tribal leader told The Associated Press. Tribal leaders and clerics in Ramadi, the capital of violent Anbar province, met last week and have set up a force of about 20,000 men "ready to purge the city of these infidels," Sheik Fassal al-Guood, a tribal leader from Ramadi, told AP.
The government prepared to announce new security measures for Baghdad before the beginning of Ramadan, expected on September 24, AP reported. Mohammed al-Askari, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told AP that the measures would be adopted two or three days before the holy month begins to "protect citizens from terrorists attacks during this month."
Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press (http://edition.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#AP) contributed to this report.
U.N. chief: Iraq in 'grave danger' of civil war
POSTED: 2104 GMT (0504 HKT), September 18, 2006
var clickExpire = "-1";
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Just hours after a suicide bomber killed 20 people in northern Iraq, U.N. chief Kofi Annan said Monday that the nation is in "grave danger" of falling into civil war.
At least 17 people were wounded in Monday's attack, when a bomber detonated an explosive vest near a line of Iraqis waiting for propane gas cylinders in Tal Afar, police said.
U.N. Secretary-General Annan, speaking at a meeting in New York attended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, praised the nation's adoption of a new constitution. But he also issued a warning about the troubled region.
Annan said "if current patterns of alienation and violence persist much further, there is a grave danger the Iraqi state will break down, possibly in the midst of full-scale civil war."
The meeting took place at the annual General Assembly session in New York, that is attended by many world leaders, including President Bush.
Annan urged Iraqi leaders to crack down on sectarian killings that have left thousands of people dead since the February bombing of a revered Shiite Muslim shrine, and to step up efforts to resolve religious and ethnic differences.
In response, Talabani said the government's security plan was showing signs of success, with a marked drop in reported incidents of violence in Baghdad in the last month, Reuters reported.
Attack in Ramadi
In addition to Monday's violence in Tal Afar, a suicide car bomber attacked a police station in Ramadi -- west of Baghdad -- killing two police officers and wounding 26 Iraqi security forces, an Iraqi interior ministry spokesman said.
The car bombing was followed minutes later by a second suicide car bomber, but that attacker did not cause any casualties at the al-Hurriya police station, the spokesman said.
Sunday, four car bomb attacks in less than three hours in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk left at least 23 people dead and 66 wounded, police told CNN.
The victims were police and civilians, officials said.
The first attack, carried out by a suicide car bomber, took place at 10 a.m. near the criminal investigation division of Kirkuk's police building, police said.
Ten minutes later, a suicide car bomber detonated outside a building housing an organization for children, and 20 minutes after that, a parked car bomb exploded outside a mosque, police said.
The fourth car bomb exploded at 12:30 p.m. on a street in the center of Kirkuk, which is 235 miles (380 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
Farther south, in Baquba, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol around 12:30 p.m., killing two Iraqi police officers and wounding three others, police told CNN.
Last week, more than 150 bodies were found dumped across Baghdad in killings authorities believe resulted from Sunni-Shiite sectarian hostilities.
Other developments
Tribes in one of Iraq's most volatile provinces have joined to fight the insurgency in their region, calling on the government and the U.S.-led military coalition to give them weapons, a prominent tribal leader told The Associated Press. Tribal leaders and clerics in Ramadi, the capital of violent Anbar province, met last week and have set up a force of about 20,000 men "ready to purge the city of these infidels," Sheik Fassal al-Guood, a tribal leader from Ramadi, told AP.
The government prepared to announce new security measures for Baghdad before the beginning of Ramadan, expected on September 24, AP reported. Mohammed al-Askari, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told AP that the measures would be adopted two or three days before the holy month begins to "protect citizens from terrorists attacks during this month."
Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press (http://edition.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#AP) contributed to this report.