Withdrawal of U.S. troops could cause civil war

Published December 26, 2011 5:00am ET



A suicide car bombing killed seven people outside Iraq’s interior ministry Monday, the latest in a string of deadly attacks in the past week that suggest the withdrawal of U.S. troops from that country will trigger a round of sectarian violence that could lead to civil war, analysts said. Iran has moved quickly into the vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal, pushing Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a member of the Shia majority, to isolate Iraq’s Sunni minority, experts said. The arrest warrant issued by Maliki’s government for Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, accused of domestic terrorism, was a clear signal that the nation remains irreconcilably split along religious lines. Neighboring countries have been quick to exploit that divide.

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