Baghdad violence is 'not full civil war' - British general

The British deputy to the top US commander in Iraq said today the country’s sectarian conflict is not a full-blown civil war, but could be described as a “civil war in miniature".

“In my judgment, we are not in a situation of civil war,” British Royal Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Fry told reporters at the Pentagon in a video-teleconference from Baghdad.

He added: “I know what a civil war looks like.” He said there was no mass migration out of Baghdad, where the sectarian violence is worst; the central government is functioning; and the country’s security forces are answerable to the government.

“So what I think we have is something which is, at the very best, civil war in miniature. But I don’t think it actually even meets that definition,” Fry said.

Murders and other acts of violence have declined substantially in Baghdad in recent weeks, Fry added, and most other parts of the country are relatively peaceful.

Fry is deputy commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, headed by US Army Gen. George Casey, and is the senior British representative in the country. Britain has about 7,200 troops in Iraq, mostly in the southern provinces.