YWT: "Everyone's in it, basically."


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Length: 4:19


JIM CLANCY: Well, let's go to Iraq now, where a suicide bomber blew up his truck. It was outside Iraqi army headquarters.

It happened in the Sunni stronghold of Ramadi. That is the capital of the rest of Anbar Province. Police say several people were wounded. The base is very close to several U.S. military installations.

Now, Ramadi has long been a hotbed of insurgent activity. And U.S. and Iraqi forces have struggled time and again to try to take control of that city.

CHURCH: Well, the Iraqi government is taking serious steps to tackle another major problem: the infiltration of its police by Shiite death squads. A brigade of up to 700 policemen was taken off the streets of Baghdad. The move comes after the kidnappings of two dozen people on Sunday. Now, the past week also saw the highest number of car bombs and roadside bombs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: In September we did see a rise in sensational attacks. Last week we also saw the highest number of vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices this year that were both found and cleared, and those that were detonated. The number of IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, is also at an all-time high. But Iraqi security forces and coalition forces continue to find and clear a portion of these devices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Let's take stock of this situation. We just heard the general there saying all-time highs. All of this comes as U.S. and Iraqi forces have been carrying out district-by-district sweeps of the capital. It started back in August.

What is the situation on the ground in Baghdad, in Ramadi, across Iraq?

Let's go to CNN's Michael Ware. He joins us live from Baghdad.

This doesn't look good. And the Iraqi people themselves are saying, we frankly cannot believe that the U.S. can't get a grip on the situation, the security situation in our country.

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, very much, Jim. I mean, people believe that -- honestly, they can see the violence spiraling out of control. And what they are now getting a sense of is, this is the first taste of the whole thing starting to unravel.

And there's great disenchantment clearly with the U.S. forces, who Iraqis had hoped had come to liberate them and then, you know, set their country on a path forward. However, they saw the Americans stay, and they've seen the situation deteriorate.

So that's where we are now. And this is the Ramadan offensive. So violence is very much peaking.

This sensational car bombing in Ramadi, we had a triple bomb attack this morning on a Ministry of Industry convoy which killed at least 12 and wounded as many as 70. I mean, the cycle of violence is just getting greater.

Now we see U.S. forces and its Iraqi partner and the prime minister of Iraq taking on one of the most powerful factions within the government. Putting this brigade of Ministry of Interior national police off line, essentially quarantining them and going through them for what an American spokesmen said was complicity in sectarian violence -- Jim.

CLANCY: Well, you know, and you look at -- people look on and Iraqis look on at this situation. They have people in interior ministry vans and vehicles pulling up, wearing the clothing of commandos, taking hostages that are never seen or heard from again.

What is going on, Michael? Who is behind it?

WARE: Well, everyone's in it, basically, Jim. I mean, this is the nature of the sectarian violence.

There's hair splitting over whether it's actually civil war, but we are seeing on the street, as far as people are concerned, this is civil war. It is akin to ethnic cleansing.

When men in a gas station queue can be grilled about their sectarian beliefs and removed as a result, when police commandos can enter your house in the middle of the night, haul you off, and the next your family knows is you are dead on the street, that can be factions within the government. Sometimes it's associated militias donning those uniforms for that night.

U.S. military intelligence talks about ministries renting out their vehicles to death squads for the evenings. It's also Sunni insurgents putting on military uniforms. Everybody is in this game, so to speak -- Jim.

CLANCY: And everybody is paying the price.

Michael Ware, as always, thank you very much.