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Shiites pissed at US military raid on mosque Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.forbes.com/business/manufacturing/feeds/ap/2006/03/27/ap2625032.htmlhttp://www.forbes.com/business/manufacturing/feeds/ap/2006/03/27/ap2625032.html
Associated Press
Update 24: Shiites Furious at U.S. Over Deadly Raid
By MARIAM FAM , 03.27.2006, 03:23 PM
Shiite politicians raged at the United States and halted negotiations on a new government Monday after a military assault killed at least 16 people in what Iraqis claim was a mosque. Fresh violence erupted in the north, with 40 killed in a suicide bombing.
The firestorm of recrimination over Sunday's raid in northeast Baghdad will likely make it harder for Shiite politicians to keep a lid on their more angry followers as sectarian violence boils over, with at least 142 dead since Sunday. A unity government involving Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds is a benchmark for American hopes of starting to withdraw troops this summer.
The U.S. military said in a statement that "no mosques were entered or damaged during this operation." It said the raid targeted a building used by "insurgents responsible for kidnapping and execution activities."
The military said the building had been under observation for some time and that gunmen opened fire as Iraqi special operations troops closed in with U.S. forces in a backup role.
"In our observation of the place and the activities that were going on, it's difficult for us to consider this a place of prayer," said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman. "It was not identified by us as a mosque, though we certainly recognized it as a community gathering center. I think this is frankly a matter of perception."
Associated Press reporters who visited the scene Monday said the site of the attack clearly was a neighborhood Shiite mosque complex. Television footage showed crumbling walls and disarray in a compound used as a gathering place for prayer. It was filled with religious posters and strung with banners denouncing the attack.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr angrily rejected the U.S. account and demanded a "clear explanation."
"Entering the Mustafa Shiite mosque and killing worshippers was unjustified and a horrible violation from my point of view," Jabr said on the Al-Arabiya TV network. "Innocent people inside the mosque offering prayer at sunset were killed."
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said he called U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and that they decided to form an Iraqi-U.S. committee to investigate.
"I will personally supervise, and we will learn who was responsible. Those who are behind this attack must be brought to the justice and punished," Talabani said.
The United Iraqi Alliance, the largest Shiite bloc in parliament, canceled Monday's session of negotiations to form a new government because of the raid, said lawmaker Jawad al-Maliki.
"We suspended today's meetings to discuss the formation of the government because of what happened at the al-Moustafa mosque," al-Maliki said, adding that the alliance was expected to decide Tuesday when to resume the talks.
The Baghdad governor said he cut ties with U.S. forces and diplomats. And all 37 members of the Baghdad provincial council suspended cooperation with the United States in reconstruction projects planned for the remainder of the year, as well as political and security coordination, said council chairman Moeen al-Khadimi.
He said the local government would try to rely instead on the budget allocated to it by the Finance Ministry and on the money that comes from donor countries.
Explaining the mosque raid, Iraqi police said gunmen fired on the joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol from a position in the neighborhood but not from the mosque. Police and representatives of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who holds great sway among poor Shiites in eastern Baghdad, said all those killed were in the complex for evening prayers and none was a gunmen.
Police said 22 people were killed. The al-Sadr officials put the death toll at 17.
Other AP video from Sunday night showed a tangle of dead male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor. The cameraman narrating the video said it was taken in the living quarters of the imam of the small mosque, part of a compound once used by Saddam Hussein's government. It also now houses a Shiite political party office in addition to the room for prayers and quarters for the imam.
The video showed 5.56 mm shell casings scattered on the floor. U.S. forces use that caliber ammunition and have provided it to Iraqi special operations troops.
The U.S. statement described the kidnappers and killers they were targeting as "insurgents," which was unusual because the operation took place at a Shiite facility. The insurgents who have been carrying out nearly daily bombings are Sunnis, while those believed responsible for execution-style slayings are primarily Shiite militias or death squads working inside the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry, which runs the police.
Monday's major suicide bombing took place at an Iraqi army recruiting office near the gate of a U.S.-Iraq military base about 20 miles east of Tal Afar, an ancient city not far from the Syrian border.
The bomber, wearing an explosives vest, struck shortly after noon, killing at least 40 Iraqis and wounding 30 others, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said.
The U.S. military said no American troops were hurt in the attack. U.S. troops helped secure the area after the attack and treat the wounded.
In yet one more gruesome discovery - a nearly daily occurrence since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine north of Baghdad - 21 more bodies were found, nine with a noose around their necks. A variety of attacks with guns, bombs, mortars and rockets killed at least 12 other people, police said.
The country's senior Shiite politician, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, told CNN that the bombing of the shrine in Samarra "was similar to what happened on 9/11 in the U.S."
As a result of the attack, he said it is much more difficult to control the streets. He said Shiites had earlier exercised restraint in the wake of attacks by Sunni insurgents.
"For three years we've been burying the slaughtering, killing, explosions, attacking of our scholars, our mosques, our facilities, our pilgrims, our barbers, our bakers, our innocents," al-Hakim said. "We are always speaking to people to restrain themselves and calm down."
In Monday's largest single attack aside from the suicide bombing, a rocket hit a building in southeast Baghdad that housed the headquarters of the Shiite Fadhila party, killing seven people and wounding at least 35, including children, police Capt. Ali Mahdi said.
Later, gunmen kidnapped 16 employees of an Iraqi trading company, an Interior Ministry official said. The men arrived at the headquarters of the Saeed import and export company in four civilian cars and appeared to rifle through papers and computers before driving away with the employees, Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammadawi said.
Also, gunmen kidnapped a university president after barging into his home in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, a relative said. Four men grabbed Anbar University chief Abdul Hadi Rajab al-Hitawi and shoved him into a black car, said his brother-in-law, Khaldoun al-Ani.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
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