Iraqi violence “self-sustaining”: U.S. intel chief

Scott Malone

Sectarian violence in Iraq has become “self-sustaining,” increasing the challenge of stabilizing the country, the top U.S. intelligence official said on Friday.

“Violence between the Sunnis and Shia has become self-sustaining and has spread out to a wider range of … groups and actors,” said John Negroponte, the U.S. national intelligence director.

Negroponte, who previously served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said the violence “presents great challenges toward Iraqi Prime Minister (Nuri) al-Maliki in trying to implement reforms geared to improve life for all Iraqis and to reverse the escalating trend of ethno-sectarian violence.

“Nonetheless, the key to moving Iraq in the direction of a fully functioning, stable democracy must come from Iraqi leaders themselves,” Negroponte said at Harvard University.

“Only if they seek to resolve their differences, reach compromises on important issues and observe the state’s authority on a full range of political, security and economic challenges in Iraq can they chart a successful path globally,” he said.

President Bush, under pressure for a change of course in Iraq, is awaiting a report on Wednesday by a bipartisan commission led by former Secretary of State James Baker, which is expected to urge a gradual withdrawal of U.S. combat troops in Iraq.

The report’s conclusions are likely to carry significant political weight even if Bush chooses to ignore them, especially after his fellow Republicans lost control of Congress in November 7 elections largely because of deep public discontent with the Iraq war.

There are about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and more than 2,800 have been killed since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The level of violence in Iraq has escalated in recent months. Data from that country’s Interior Ministry showed 1,850 civilian casualties in Iraq last month, a 44 percent leap from October. The data were boosted by the deaths of 202 in last week’s multiple car bombing in the Shi’ite stronghold of Sadr City, the worst attack since the U.S. invasion.

Negroponte said al-Qaeda continued to work to destabilize the fledgling Iraqi government.

Given those stresses, he said, “coalition forces will remain an important counter to the erosion of authority” in that country.