US kills 32 in mosque raid
At least 32 fighters loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were killed when US followed Iraqi forces into a mosque in the holy city of Kufa, where rebels were said to be storing weapons.
US troops also clashed with al-Sadr militiamen in a Shiite district of Baghdad and in Najaf, the twin city of Kufa, yesterday.
Nine US soldiers were wounded yesterday in several incidents around Baghdad, the military said, including four injured in a mortar attack in the east of the capital.
In another holy city, Karbala, militia fighters appeared to have abandoned their positions after weeks of combat.
A US Marine was killed in a car bombing near Fallujah, a centre of the separate Sunni Muslim uprising in the central and northern areas of the country.
American tanks and troops moved into the heart of Kufa, a stronghold of al-Sadr, yesterday, for the first time since the fiercely anti-US cleric launched an uprising against the coalition early last month.
Al-Sadr, wanted for the April 2003 killing of a moderate rival cleric, has taken refuge in Najaf and routinely delivers a Friday sermon in Kufa.
US soldiers fought militiamen near Kufa’s Sahla mosque and then raided it for weapons after an Iraqi counter-terrorism force “cleared” the site, the military said.
Soldiers seized a machine gun, two mortar tubes and more than 200 mortar rounds, along with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and rounds, according to a statement.
American troops smashed the gate to the mosque complex with an armoured vehicle and killed people inside, mosque employee Radhi Mohammed said.
An Associated Press photographer saw bloodstains on the ground indicating that someone was dragged for at least 10 yards. There also was blood in mosque bathrooms.
The fighting around Shiite holy cities south of Baghdad, among the world’s most sacred Shia sites, has enraged Shiite communities in Iran and elsewhere.
In Tehran, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran sent a “warning” message to the United States through the Swiss embassy concerning American actions in Iraq.
Switzerland looks after American interests in Iran. Asefi did not say whether the warning involved military actions around the holy cities.
“There were American forces in that local mosque last night,” said Major David Gercken, spokesman for the 1st Armoured Division. “They went in after the Iraqi forces.”
Sheikh Mansoor al-Asadi, head of the central council of tribes in the Najaf area, said he was “astonished” by the Kufa raid, saying it undermined efforts by local leaders to resolve the stand-off between al-Sadr and the coalition peacefully.
Salama al-Khafaji, a Shiite member of the council, denounced the US move against the mosque as a “violation of sanctity” which will put an added burden on Iraqi authorities who work with the Americans.
But Major General Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armoured Division, said US forces took care not to damage Shiite Muslim shrines even though militiamen used them as fighting positions.
“We have no intention of entering the shrines,” Dempsey said, adding that Iraqi security forces would enter them if necessary.
Al-Sadr’s supporters have accused the military of desecrating holy places.
American troops also fought his militia, known as the al-Mahdi Army, around Kufa’s technical college and a building known as Saddam’s Palace, the military said. Thirty-two militiamen died.
Sixteen people also were wounded in clashes between US forces and al-Sadr loyalists in Najaf, according to hospital officials and witnesses. Two other militiamen were wounded when three projectiles exploded in central Najaf.
In Karbala, no al-Sadr fighters or American forces were seen on the streets Sunday, but the US military denied claims by al-Sadr’s office that all combatants agreed to withdraw from the city.
“There was no ceasefire, no deal made in Karbala,” Gercken said. “We do not and will not make deals with militias or criminals.”
Iraqi leaders in Karbala were trying to negotiate an end to the fighting, but coalition officials have demanded that al-Sadr disband his militia and “face justice” on the arrest warrant.
