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John Daley ReportingIn Iraq are ominous signs of trouble ahead. Extraordinary steps, including a daytime curfew, are now being taken to stop waves of violence that threatens civil war. US troops and US policy may get caught in the middle. That's according to a Middle East expert here in Utah.
He says with more violence dividing the country, so grows the danger things are spinning out of control. Two signs of the high cost of strife in Iraq - yesterday the family of Staff Sergeant Gregson Glenn Gourley, a Utah native, learned he was one of four soldiers killed when their Humvee hit a roadside bomb; meantime, at least 120 have died in sectarian violence since Wednesday's attack against one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines,the Golden Mosque in Samarra.
Among the dead are 47 people, Sunni and Shiite, pulled off a bus and shot to death after attending a peace rally. Two days of angry demonstrations and reprisal killing seemed to be pushing Iraq toward civil war.
The director of the University of Utah's Middle East Center says, making matters worse, there's no functioning government there to contain it.
Ibrahim Karawan, Director, Middle East Center, Univ. of Utah: "It is touching serious symbols of religion, ethnicity and identity. The kind of thing that could provoke people to engage in an unlimited degree of violence."
Utahns we talked with today say either they're worried or not sure what to think.
Ben Simon, Salt Lake City Resident: "It's getting pretty intense. I thought it was going to cool down. It looked like they were actually making some progress, but it's looked like that's falling back on them. It looks like it's hurting them pretty bad."
Claire Snyder, Salt Lake City Resident: "I guess I am concerned just cause it was kind of mellow for a while and now it's starting to pick up and stir, and you never know what could happen next."
Trevor Corbett, West Jordan Resident: "You know, I really don't know. I know they have a lot of unrest, but I'm not sure exactly what's going on, because I don't know how accurate the news is and how much people really know."
For US troops, providing stability gets tougher as violence grows, and the US can only urge calm without any appearance of taking sides.
Ibrahim Karawan: "It's possible that the Americans would find themselves in the middle. Accused by both sides of not providing enough security."
President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are underscoring the seriousness of the situation. Today they are urging Iraqis to exercise restraint in hopes of avoiding a civil war.
