Bomb kills 6 near Shi'ite shrine in Iraq

BAGHDAD -- A car bomb killed six people yesterday near a Shi'ite shrine south of Baghdad, and the death toll from the deadliest attack of the year rose to 85. A senior official warned that Iraq was in an ''undeclared civil war" that can be curbed only by a strong government and greater powers for security services.

With sectarian tensions rising, US Marines yesterday beat back the largest attack in weeks by Sunni Arab insurgents in the western city of Ramadi.

The car bomb exploded at a small shrine in the Euphrates River town of Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad. Police said most of the six dead and 14 wounded were Shi'ite pilgrims.

Fears of more attacks are running high in Shi'ite areas after the car bombing Thursday that killed 10 in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf and the suicide attack the next day against a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad, the deadliest attack in Iraq this year.

The attacks on houses of worship have stoked tensions between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims, especially after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra, an act that triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.

Despite the violence, US officials have discounted talk of civil war. But a senior Iraqi official said yesterday that an ''undeclared civil war" had already been raging for more than a year. ''Is there a civil war? Yes, there is an undeclared civil war that has been there for a year or more," Major General Hussein Kamal said. ''All these bodies that are discovered in Baghdad, the slaughter of pilgrims heading to holy sites, the explosions, the destruction, the attacks against the mosques are all part of this."

Kamal said the country would still be spared from all-out sectarian war ''if a strong government is formed, if the security forces are given wide powers and if they are able to defeat the terrorists."

''Then we might be able to overcome this crisis," he said.

The death toll from the Friday bombing of the Buratha mosque in north Baghdad rose to 85 because some of the wounded died, Dr. Riyadh Abdul Ameer of the Health Ministry said. Officials said the death toll could rise because of severe injuries among the 156 people wounded in the attack by suicide bombers, including one dressed as a woman.

Also yesterday, Sunni insurgents launched their strongest attack in six weeks against the Anbar provincial government headquarters in Ramadi, 75 miles west of Baghdad. There were no US casualties, Marines said.

A US Air Force F-18 fighter bombed insurgent positions. US Marines guarding the government headquarters fought the insurgents with anti-tank rockets, machine guns, and small arms fire.

Sporadic shooting occurred around the government building after sunset, and an Iraqi soldier was killed yesterday in a separate fight in Ramadi, US officials said. Three Iraqi soldiers were wounded in a clash with insurgents in Fallujah, about 30 miles east of Ramadi, police said.

The US military reported yesterday that a US Marine died from wounds suffered in hostile action the day before in Anbar province but gave no further details.

The New York Times reported in its online edition yesterday that an internal staff report by the US Embassy and the military command rated overall stability of six of Iraq's 18 provinces ''serious" and one ''critical." The report was dated Jan. 31, the Times said.

The newspaper said provinces where overall stability was rated ''serious" included Baghdad and oil-rich Basra, where Shi'ite militias wield considerable influence. Anbar province, which includes Ramadi and Fallujah, was rated ''critical," the newspaper said.

''This report should be seen in the broader context of development in Iraq as it relates to the economy, governance, and security," Dan Speckhard, the US reconstruction chief for Iraq, said in a statement.

He said significant progress was being made in economic development and local governance after ''decades of mismanagement" by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Efforts to form a strong, broadbased government including Sunnis, Shi'ites, and Kurds have stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shi'ite candidate to lead the next administration. Opponents accuse al-Jaafari of failing to stem sectarian violence.

However, al-Jaafari has refused to step aside, and his Shi'ite coalition has been reluctant to reconsider his nomination for fear of splintering their ranks. Shi'ite officials were to meet, possibly as soon as today, to discuss the stalemate at the urging of the country's top Shi'ite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

In other developments yesterday:

Police found four headless bodies showing signs of torture that were dumped on a farm about 20 miles north of Baghdad.

A mortar round hit a house near the Education Ministry in central Baghdad, killing two men, police said.

Associated Press correspondents Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Todd Pitman in Ramadi contributed to this report.