US document portrays dire security situation in Iraq: report

Sat Apr 8, 7:30 PM ET

NEW YORK (AFP) - An internal US government report rates the stability of six of Iraq's 18 provinces as "serious" and another as "critical," it was reported.

The report shows the country partitioning along ethnic and religious lines, and warns of sectarian and ethnic friction even in areas US officials had portrayed as peaceful, the The New York Times reported on its website.

The daily obtained the report from "a government official in Washington who said the confidential assessment provided a more realistic gauge of stability in Iraq than the recent portrayals be senior military officers," the Times wrote.

The 10-page document was written by US diplomatic and military officials in Baghdad and dated January 31, 2006 -- three weeks before the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra set off waves of sectarian violence.

Recent updates have left its conclusions unchanged, Daniel Speckhard, a US ambassador to Iraq, told the Times.

Titled "Provincial Stability Assessment," the document warns of the growing power of the pro-Iranian Shiite religious parties, rival Shiite militias in the south, and the Arab-Kurdish clashes over the northern city of Mosul and the key oil city of Kirkuk.

The report grades Iraq's provinces on government, security and economy.

Overall, the western Sunni-dominated province of Al-Anbar falls in the "critical" category.

Baghdad, Nineveh, Slahadin, Diyala, and Tamm provinces fall in the "serious" category, along with the southern province of Basra, once considered a peaceful region.

The three Kurdish provinces in the north are considered "stable" -- meaning they have a fully functioning government, enforced laws, and strong economic development -- while the rest of the country falls in the "moderate" category, according to the Times