Iraq's Evolving Insurgency and the Risk of Civil War
Democracy, Deadlock, and Death Squads: Developments in the Summer of 2006
September 27, 2006
The rising insurgency in Iraq has become a “war after the war” that threatens to divide the country and thrust it into full-scale civil war. It dominates the struggle to reshape Iraq as a modern state, has emerged as a growing threat to the Gulf region, and has become linked to the broader struggle between Sunni and Shi’ite Islamist extremism, and moderation and reform, throughout the Islamic world.
Since its inception in the spring of 2003, the nature of the insurgency has evolved from a struggle largely limited to a confrontation between Coalition forces and former regime loyalists to a much more diffuse conflict, involving a number of Sunni groups, Shi’ite militias, and foreign jihadists.
