Former Iraq Prime Minister: "We are in Civil War'

Iraq is in the middle of a civil war, Iraq's former prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. aired on Sunday.

Allawi said there was no other way to describe the increasing violence across the country.

"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," Allawi told the BBC. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

Allawi heads the Iraqi National List, a secular alliance of Shiite and Sunni politicians.

While visiting British troops in Iraq on Sunday, defense secretary John Reid said Allawi's remarks to the BBC contradicted what the former prime minister had told him in a meeting on Saturday.

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