Iraqi Warns of Grave Results if U.S. Pulls Out

By STEPHEN FARRELL

BAGHDAD, July 9 — The Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, warned today that an early American withdrawal from Iraq could bring on an all-out civil war and regional conflict, pointedly telling the United States that it had responsibilities to continue lending support to the Baghdad government.

Mr. Zebari also asserted that Iraq’s neighbor Turkey had massed 140,000 troops near his country’s northern border and urged it to resolve differences with dialogue, not through force.

Mr. Zebari was speaking after a violent weekend in which more than 220 people were killed in Iraq, including 150 by a truck bomb in one of the deadliest single attacks since the American invasion in March 2003.

Asked if the Iraqi government’s was aware of the growing pressure on President Bush from Congress to impose a timetable for withdrawing American forces from Iraq, Mr. Zebari said his government was holding a “dialogue” with some congressmen.

“We explain to them the dangers of a speedy withdrawal and leaving a security vacuum, and the dangers vary from civil war to dividing the country or maybe to regional wars,” he said.

“Some people might disagree with this assessment, but in our estimation the danger is huge. Until the Iraqi forces and institutions complete their readiness, there is a responsibility on the U.S. and other countries to stand by the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people to help build up their capabilities.”

Mr. Zebari’s comments came after some Sunni and Shiite leaders called on Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves, amid frustration that Iraqi security forces had failed to halt the deadly suicide attacks.

On Saturday around 150 people were killed by a truck bomb in the poor Shiite Turkmen village of Amerli, 100 miles north of Baghdad. This came 12 hours after 17 Shiites were killed by a explosion in Zarkush, north of Baquba.

Some Iraqis complain that suicide bombers have simply moved outside such cities as Baghdad and Baquba where American and Iraqi troops are engaged in large-scale security operations to restore order.

Mr. Zebari conceded that when insurgents were removed from one area, “they will try to move their operation and their activities to another area, just to prove that they are still in business by killing more innocent people.”

But he asserted that this movement was evidence that the bombers are “on the run, and really the net is closing on them.”

Mr. Zebari described Turkey’s reported troop movement toward the Iraqi border as a “huge buildup in our view” and said the Iraqi government was “trying to defuse the situation.”

The Turkish government has long complained that Iraq’s Kurdish regional government has failed to stop separatist Kurdish fighters belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party crossing the border and carrying out attacks in Turkey. The Kurdish party, known as the P.K.K., is a separatist group that has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

A spokesman for the Turkish military said today that it had no comment on the reported troop movement. The Turkish Army has increased activity along its border with Iraq since the spring, and commanders have pressed the Turkish parliament to allow a large-scale operation in northern Iraq, where they say Kurdish militants who want a separate Kurdish state in southern Turkey hide.

Turkish commanders contend that there are 2,800 to 3,100 militants in northern Iraq.

Mr. Zebari, who is a Kurd, said Iraq was ready “to address all Turkish legitimate security concerns over the P.K.K. or any terrorist activities,” but he warned that Turkey should not use force, and that the Iraqi government was “definitely opposed to any military incursion or any violations of Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

He insisted his government was not “running away from our responsibilities” in Iraqi Kurdistan, but he pleaded for patience, saying that Iraq’s security forces were already overstretched “fighting terrorism here in the streets and neighborhoods of Baghdad.” He urged the revival of a security and military commission to bring together the United States, Iraq and Turkey “to agree on practical measures” to resolve the situation.

Sabrina Tavernise contributed reporting from Ankara, Turkey.