Deadliest day in Baghdad since 2003; U.S. report says it's 'civil war'

According to a Reuters report:

"It was a terrible scene. Many shops and houses were destroyed," said one resident, Jassem, 42, who had rushed from his home nearby to help pull people from the rubble after hearing the ear-splitting explosion.

The bombing was believed to be a suicide bomber, since after the December blast that rocked the same neighborhood, cars were forbidden to park in the street.

The blast, which left a wide crater in the street, came hours after Iraq's leading Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, renewed an appeal to Iraqis to avoid violence.

"The Islamic nation is passing through difficult conditions and facing tremendous challenges that threaten its future," his new fatwa, or religious edict, said.

"Everybody knows the necessity for us to stand together and reject the sectarian tension to avoid stirring sectarian differences."

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Meanwhile, a U.S. intelligence report released yesterday said that the violence between Sunni and Shi-ite groups meets the definition of civil war - a description of Iraq that the White House has rejected for months, especially after NBC decided the network as a whole would now classify the country as having decayed into a state of civil war.

So much for PM Nuri al-Maliki's promise to crush insurgents earlier last month.

[Cross posted on Daily Kos and Capitol Talk!]

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