Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned on Saturday that increasing sectarian violence had plunged Iraq into a civil war which might threaten the entire Middle East region.

"There is effectively a civil war underway now (in Iraq)," Mubarak said in an interview aired on the Dubai-based pan-Arab al- Arabiya TV.

The Egyptian leader, who opposed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, said that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at this stage would lead to more violence in the conflict-ridden country.

"If the Americans left now, it would be a catastrophe because the war will get worse ... and the country will become the theater of an ugly civil war and terror will eat up not only Iraq but the entire region," he said.

"I do not know when the situation in Iraq will stabilize. I personally do not see a solution to the problem in Iraq, which is practically destroyed now," he said.

The oil-rich Arab country has been mired in almost daily bloodshed over the past three years.

In the latest attacks, six Shiite pilgrims were killed on Saturday in a suicide bombing south of Baghdad, one day after 79 worshippers were killed in a triple suicide attack against one of main Shiite mosques in the capital.

Source: Xinhua