London ? International law is ambiguous about what constitutes civil war vs. a domestic uprising, guerrilla conflict, coup or other forms of rebellion against state authority.

In general, experts in international law describe civil war as a breakdown in civil order and a refusal by a significant percentage of a population to recognize the established governmental authority. Typically, it coincides with a formal, violent split among the parties that govern a country and maintain its security, including its legislature, military, police and civil service.

During the Lebanese civil war from 1976 to 1991, the army split into rival Christian and Muslim brigades, with both sides fighting alongside sectarian militias. By contrast, Colombia has been fighting an internal war for more than 50 years, but it is not recognized internationally as a civil war because no apparatus of state control has fallen under guerrilla command, nor has a significant percentage of the population declared allegiance to the guerrillas.

Although Iraq is immersed in sectarian violence, the legislature, civil service, military and police remain precariously united under central government authority. Ethnic Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south enjoy virtual autonomy over their governments and security forces. Still, they continue to declare their allegiance to a unified Iraq, so the overt conditions of civil war have yet to emerge.