General John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said that fighting in Baghdad is at its highest level and threatens to push Iraq into civil war. ``The sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular,'' Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington. ``If not stopped, Iraq could slide into civil war.'' Members of the panel shared his fear. Committee Chairman John Warner of Virginia said he is ``gravely concerned'' by the spike in violence, sectarian attacks and instability in the Iraq's capital. ``The situation is very fragile,'' Warner, a Republican, said. ``Baghdad could literally tilt this thing if it fails.''
Abizaid said he decided to move 3,500 American troops, including a Stryker brigade from Mosul, to Baghdad to attack and kill the ``militia death squads that we are seeing operate now in Baghdad with a degree of freedom.'' The redeployment follows the failure of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's plan to pacify the capital. The United Nations said last month that more than 14,000 Iraqis were killed this year through June.