Wait, is it a civil war or not?

After the bombing of the Shiites' Askariya mosque, and the retaliatory attacks on more than 100 Sunni mosques in following days, people could not wait to say "civil war." But then things settled down.

Or did they?

This Washington Post article says the Baghdad death toll since Wednesday is 1,300 Iraqis. It was previoulsy reported to have been lower.

Note: The article is grisly; I had to look up "garrotted" (strangulation, such as by a cord).

Civil war is a serious term that should not be thrown around. But...