Civil War Rumblings

In what could be an ominous development, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports Baathists are being targeted for assassination. The incidents took place as Iraqi officials made statements indicating that Baath Party loyalists would not be welcome in the reconciliatory dialogue that they were meeting at the Arab League to prepare for. President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari both made comments to that effect Saturday at the opening of the preparatory meeting. Talabani is Kurdish and Jaafari is a Shite—no Sunni voice is mentioned. Until now the feared civil war has been held back by the extraordinary restraint of the Shiite majority. If the assassinations are in fact an amplification of official positions it's a sign that restraint is now unraveling.