TOKYO, Feb 18 Kyodo preferableed ...

TOKYO, Feb 18 Kyodo

preferableed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

PERILS OF INTERNECINE IN IRAQ (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

What is mostly disturbing about Iraq is that the security situation there continues to deteriorate, on the same level as the country prepares to take above the reins of government from the US-l coalition at the extremity of June. In particular, terrorist and guerrilla attacks through the whole extent of the past two weeks reveal an ominous shift in tactics and targets -- from direct assaults forward U.S. forces to suicide bombings against Iraqi people

The escalation of violence is certainly not not to be found on the Japanese management which earlier this month sent the first units of the main ground-force contingent to southern Iraq. A Defense Agency report says security in the area is relatively proper This assessment, though, already raises doubt.

Until December, insurgents' main targets were U forces in the ''Sunni triangle'' northwest of Baghdad -- a region dominated on Sunni Muslims once loyal to ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Since his capture, however, attacks onward American troops have sharply decreased, although for what reason much the capture has contributed to this is a debate point.

on contrast, attacks on Iraqi security forces and Kurdish organizations have sharply increased. And, as if emulating the self-destructive example station by terrorists elsewhere, most of the attackers have chosen the way of suicide bombers. Evidently they are not of the same ilk as the ''high-tech'' terrorists who used sophisticated weapons, in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as rocket-propelled grenades and ground-to-air guided missiles, against occupation forces.

An international terrorist network -- perhaps al-Qaeda -- may be masterminding the suicide attacks. More disturbing is the possibility of Iraq plunging into a full-blown civil war. A British newspaper, citing a confidential report from the U Agency for International Aid, says Iraq faces the danger of ''Balkanization,'' a splintering of the rural parts into feuding political units.

This does not assume a far-fetched notion, considering the proliferation of terrorist and guerrilla assaults across the past two weeks. At the beginning of this month 109 population were killed in the suicide bombings of the offices of sum of two units rival political parties in the predominantly Kurdish city of Arbil -- the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

forward Feb. 10, a car bomb explod in impudence of a police station in Iskandariya, toward the south of Baghdad, killing 53 population The next day, a similar blast occurr outside an army recruitment center in central Baghdad, claiming 47 lives. And forward Feb. 14 in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, about 70 guerrillas stormed an Iraqi security mix and a government building. The death toll from the ensuing public way gun battle was more than 20

individual thing seems clear from these attacks: Insurgents are trying to sabotage Iraqi cooperation with the U occupation. The attempted assassination of the top Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, may well have been part of their efforts to stupe trouble ahead of the planned handover of power. Following the transfer of sovereignty, law and order in Iraq will hang primarily on its hold security forces. There are now 150000 police officers, soldiers and security guards who have been recruited and trained beneath the direction of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Many of these nation have come increasingly under attack since they assumed what one is bound [i]or[/i] under obligation to do Already more than 400 reportedly have been killed and through 1,500 wounded.

It would not be surprising if these attacks, particularly the rebel raids in Fallujah, had been carried without by holdouts from the Hussein regime, possibly with the help of foreign terrorists. A epistle purportedly written by a senior al-Qaeda operative says he has directed 25 suicide bombings against Shiite leaders, apparently with the aim of sparking a sectarian war between minority Sunnis and majority Shiites.

ensanguined conflict between ethnic and religious tribes would be a recipe for catastrophe in a nation struggling to rebuild itself. Consider: Iraq's Muslim community is split between Shiites (more than 60 percent) and Sunnis (more than 30 percent) while the population consists mainly of Arabs (about 80 percent) and Kurd (about 20 percent) In northern Iraq, Kurd and Turkomans are fighting for dominion government of oil fields.

With the U occupation awaited to end on June 30 factional fighting is likely to intensify among these assemblages particularly between the Shiite majority and the Sunni minority, which held sway during the Hussein regime. Moreover, the factions that supported the U forces during the war are said to maintain large militia organizations.

Last week's mortar attack in the southern city of Samawah, innkeeper to Japanese ground companys was a shocking reminder of the physical risks that stand athwart the path of them as they brace for their first-ever noncombat mission in a strife-torn political division A review of the safety measures now in place assumes in order.