Iraq's religious factions make calls for restraint

In a statement, the new coalition agreed that "resisting the occupier is a legitimate right," but condemned "all terrorist acts that target civilians, no matter the reason."

Some analysts say that the scale of violence and the rhetoric of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the self-proclaimed leader of the insurgency, should not blur the line between acts of terror and those of Sunni resistance. In a statement widely rejected by Islamic scholars last week, Mr. Zarqawi justified the killing of innocent Muslims civilians for jihad.

"There is a difference: the Shiite clergy have not been killed by the [Clerics' Association], but by Zarqawi, who is not under their control," says Mustafa Alani, head of the security and terrorism studies program at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. The association has "no militia, and all people know their influence over Zarqawi is limited, if anything."

Mr. Dhari's charge that the Iran-trained militia of Mr. Hakkim's SCIRI has infiltrated the interior ministry and security services is a "major accusation," says Mr. Alani. "This is a problem if people in [national] uniform are serving their party with assassinations and killings."

The US diplomat said that so far he has seen "no evidence" of such a link. But he acknowledges that the appointment as interior minister of Bayan Baqir Jabor, a top SCIRI leader, is a "real lightning rod" that has been "very sobering to the Sunni community."

The Sunnis meeting on Saturday called for Mr. Jabor's resignation. Jabor has denied the charges, saying his ministry "didn't kill anybody," and that it would cooperate with any group to dent the insurgency.

The stakes are high, as Shiites and Sunnis weigh their complaints. "I don't believe civil war is possible at this stage," says Ansari. "But if organized [attacks] continue, Sunnis will be forced to form a militia" that could ally with Zarqawi. "Though they do not have the same aims or the same ideology, they would be fighting the same enemy," he adds. "The pressure from the other side will force [Sunnis] to form this for their own self-defense."

Sectarian civil war is a leap for most Iraqis, who have had a message of nationalism drilled into them for a generation, during Saddam Hussein's rule, say observers.

"That nationalist message was very successful, and up to [late 2004] it was rude to ask a person in Iraq what sectarian group they were," says Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a think tank in London.

What changed, says Mr. Dodge, is that US-installed interim governments - inspired by Iraqi exiles with a "highly divisive sense of Iraqi society" - were created to achieve sectarian balance. The Shiite alliance of parties that won most seats in the election waged a very sectarian campaign that Dodge calls "ethnic entrepreneurialism."

"Most depressing is that when you don't have a state, and you have a law-and-order vacuum," adds Dodge, "Iraqis must depend on local, communal support - built on sectarian appeal."

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