Meanwhile in Washington, Senator Ted Kennedy blasted the war in Iraq saying it had become Bush’s Vietnam War.

Scores of Iraqis and about 15 U.S. troops have died since Sadr called for an armed uprising against the U.S. Earlier today, Reuters reports Italian troops killed 15 Iraqis in Nassiriya. In Baghdad, up to 60 Iraqis have been killed in the area known as Sadr city. For the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the U.S. has begun using Apache gunships to bomb parts of the Iraqi capital.

While the US attempted to crack down on the Shiite followers of Sadr, 1300 Marines have sealed off the Sunni city of Falluja where four US military contractors were killed last week.

For the first time the US potentially faces a two-front war against both Sunnis and Shiites.

The foreign minister of US ally Qatar, said last night: “We fear that we are facing a civil war in Iraq, [it] reminds me of what happened in Afghanistan and Lebanon.”