Baghdad, Iraq ? A car bomb killed six people Saturday near a Shiite shrine south of Baghdad, and the death toll from the deadliest attack of the year rose to nearly 90. A senior official warned Iraq was in an “undeclared civil war” that can be curbed only by a strong government and greater powers for security services.

With sectarian tensions rising, U.S. Marines on Saturday beat back the largest attack in weeks by Sunni Arab insurgents in the western city of Ramadi – another sign of the crisis facing this country three years after Baghdad fell to U.S. forces.

The car bomb exploded at a small shrine in the Euphrates River town of Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad. Police said most of the six dead and 14 wounded were Shiite pilgrims visiting the shrine.

Fears of more attacks are running high in Shiite areas following the Thursday car bombing that killed 10 in the Shiite holy city of Najaf and the suicide attack the following day against a Shiite mosque in Baghdad – the deadliest attack in Iraq this year.

The attacks on houses of worship have stoked tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, especially after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, an act that triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.

Fears of civil war

Despite the violence, U.S. officials have discounted talk of civil war. However, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday that an “undeclared civil war” had already been raging for more than a year.

“Is there a civil war? Yes, there is an undeclared civil war that has been there for a year or more,” Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal told The Associated Press. “All these bodies that are discovered in Baghdad, the slaughter of pilgrims heading to holy sites, the explosions, the destruction, the attacks against the mosques are all part of this.”

His comments were echoed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. “Civil war has almost started among Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and those who are coming from Asia. The situation is uneasy and I don’t know how would Iraq be brought together,” Mubarak said in an interview broadcast Saturday on Al-Arabiya satellite television.

Kamal said the country would still be spared from all-out sectarian war “if a strong government is formed, if the security forces are given wide powers and if they are able to defeat the terrorists.”

“Then we might be able to overcome this crisis,” he said.

The death toll from the Friday bombing of the Buratha mosque in north Baghdad rose to 85 because some of the wounded died, Dr. Riyadh Abdul Ameer of the Health Ministry said. Officials said the death toll could rise because of severe injuries among the 156 people wounded in the attack by suicide bombers, including one dressed as a woman.

The U.S. military reported Saturday that a U.S. Marine died from wounds suffered in hostile action the day before in Anbar province but gave no further details.

Stability rated

The New York Times reported in its online edition Saturday that an internal staff report by the U.S. Embassy and the military command rated overall stability of six of Iraq’s 18 provinces “serious” and one “critical.” The report was dated Jan. 31, the Times said.

The newspaper said provinces where overall stability was rated “serious” included Baghdad and oil-rich Basra, where Shiite militias wield considerable influence. Anbar province, which includes Ramadi and Fallujah, was rated “critical,” the newspaper said.

“This report should be seen in the broader context of development in Iraq as it relates to the economy, governance and security,” Dan Speckhard, the U.S. reconstruction chief for Iraq, said in a statement.

He said significant progress was being made in economic development and local governance after “decades of mismanagement” by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Efforts to form a strong, broad-based government including Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds have stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite candidate to lead the next administration. Opponents accuse al-Jaafari of failing to stem sectarian violence.

However, al-Jaafari has refused to step aside, and his Shiite coalition has been reluctant to reconsider his nomination for fear of splintering their ranks. Shiite officials were to meet, possibly as soon as today, to discuss the stalemate at the urging of Iraq’s top Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.