Pentagon Report: Some Iraq violence constitutes 'civil war'; Last 3 months of 2006 most violent of war

WASHINGTON: The U.S. military said Wednesday for the first time, in a bleak new report, that some of the violence in Iraq can be described as constituting a civil war.

In a newly negative assessment of the war to date, a quarterly Pentagon report said that last October through December was the most violent three-month period since 2003. Attacks and casualties suffered by coalition and Iraqi forces and civilians were higher than any other similar time span, the report said.

Most of the data in the Pentagon's 42-page report refer to the period before President George W. Bush ordered an additional 21,500 troops and thousands of support personnel to Baghdad to deal with the escalating violence. The report cautions that it should be considered "a baseline from which to measure future progress."

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune