Divide and conquer: Al Qaeda's latest tactic in Iraq?

A letter branded as a "blueprint" for civil war in Iraq is being rejected by Sunnis and Shiites here who insist that the two communities will never take up arms against each other.

Although there have been flare-ups between the majority Shiites and the traditionally dominant Sunnis - and a broader conflict is often the source of speculation - Iraqis stress that relations between the two communities remain strong and dismiss notions of a civil war.

"There are no problems between the Sunnis and the Shiites," says Bassam Abdullah, a barber in the Shiite-dominated of Sadr City. "The media play up the splits between us. My neighbor is a Sunni and we are friends."

The US military on Wednesday released a letter which it says is a plea to Al-Qaeda for assistance in launching attacks against Shiites to foment a civil war with the Sunni community. The letter was allegedly written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is said to be a chemical and biological weapons expert for Al-Qaeda and who stands accused of planning some of the devastating suicide bombings that have plagued Iraq in recent months.

Complaining of minimal support among Iraq's Sunnis for the insurgency against the US-led occupation, the letter says that the Shiites are the key to expanding the war against the US presence.

"Targeting and striking their religious, political, and military symbols will make them show their rage against the Sunnis and bear their inner vengeance," it says. "If we succeed in dragging them into a sectarian war, this will awaken the sleeping Sunnis who are fearful of death and destruction at the hands of these Sabeans [the Shiites]."

The letter adds "So the solution, and God only knows, is that we need to bring the Shia into the battle because it is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidels and us."

The American-run Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is scheduled to hand over sovereignty to a transitional Iraqi authority on June 30, after which the occupation will formally end, although troops from the US and other countries will remain to help ensure stability.

US officials in Baghdad claim the Zarqawi letter is a distress call, a realization that time is running out for Islamic militants wishing to confront US forces in Iraq.

The US military is refusing to release details on how the letter was obtained "for operational security reasons."

But Dan Senor, a senior adviser to the CPA, said that the letter was released to the public "so that more and more Iraqis will be aware of the terrorists' strategy" in the hope that it will undermine support for the resistance.

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