This week's surge in violence is "an anomaly" and Iraq is not on the verge of civil war, the top U.S. commander there said on Friday, after one of the country's bloodiest days since the fall of Saddam Hussein. "This level of violence, I think as we've seen, is an anomaly. We see these spikes periodically," Army Gen. George Casey said on CNN. On Thursday, suicide bombers in Kerbala and Ramadi killed more than 120 Iraqis, and 11 U.S. troops died in four insurgent attacks. "These attacks of the past days, I believe, have been intended by the foreign fighters and the Iraqis that are supporting them to foment sectarian tension during a vulnerable period of the formation of the government," Casey said. "But I don't think it's on the brink of civil war." Casey, in Washington for meetings with President George W. Bush and Pentagon leaders, differed with remarks made on Tuesday by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who preceded him as top commander in Iraq before leaving in 2004, reported Reuters. "The country's on the verge of a civil war," Sanchez told soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq during a ceremony in Heidelberg, Germany, the military affairs newspaper Stars and Stripes reported.
