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| Iraq |
| Confusion over Baghdad violence |
| 2006-03-27 |
| Politicians from Iraq's Shi'ite majority accused U.S. troops of massacring 20 worshippers at a Baghdad mosque on Sunday but police and residents said many died in clashes between Shi'ite militia fighters and Americans. U.S. military spokesmen declined comment on the accusations but issued a statement describing a raid by Iraqi special forces, with U.S. advisers, on a building that was not a mosque in roughly the same area. It said 16 insurgents were killed. Police said U.S. forces clashed with the Mehdi Army militia of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, killing 20 fighters. With Baghdad under night curfew it was impossible to pin down what happened. But unusually strident anti-U.S. coverage on government-run state television showed a fierce confrontation between the ruling Shi'ite Islamists and the U.S. administration. A spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said the premier was "deeply concerned" and had called the U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, who said there would be a full inquiry. Also on Sunday, U.S. forces arrested 41 officials from the Shi'ite-controlled Interior Ministry and freed 17 foreigners from a secret jail, government, political and U.S. sources said. Northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi troops found 30 bodies, many of them beheaded, on a village street. And in the same area around Baquba, police arrested one of their own majors, the brother of the regional police chief, over Shi'ite death squad killings. The events came as Washington raises pressure on the Shi'ites to bring minority Sunnis into government -- it is even planning landmark talks with hostile Shi'ite Iran to break the impasse. Many fear a failure of the plan could plunge Iraq into civil war. Iraqiya state television carried lengthy footage of the bloodied corpses of men in civilian clothes, in a room where no weapons were visible, calling them victims of U.S. gunfire. "American forces raid and burn Mustafa mosque. A number of citizens martyred inside," it said in an on-screen headline. One dead man had a membership card from Jaafari's Dawa party. Jaafari ally Jawad al-Maliki condemned a U.S. "policy of aggression". Leading aides to Sadr denounced the U.S. troops. Sadr aide Hazim al-Araji later said: "We are calling for calm ... "We do not want to be dragged to a third war." Though supposedly disbanded in 2004 after two uprisings were crushed by U.S. forces, the Mehdi Army remains a significant force, along with other pro-government militias which Sunnis accuse of running death squads against them. Since 2004, Sadr, with apparent Iranian backing has become a virtual kingmaker within the dominant Shi'ite Alliance bloc -- he crucially is backing Jaafari to remain prime minister despite opposition from Sunnis, Kurds and some Alliance rivals. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, at the heart of urgent U.S. efforts to forge a unity government, said on Saturday the militias must be brought to heel and accused them of killing more people over the last few weeks than Sunni rebel bombings. Reprisal attacks after the destruction of a Shi'ite shrine a month ago killed hundreds, though Sadr and other Shi'ite leaders called publicly for restraint among their armed followers. Residents in the Shaab district of northeastern Baghdad said they saw and heard heavy clashes between U.S. troops and gunmen they believed were from the Mehdi Army, close to the Sadr-linked Mustafa mosque. U.S. helicopters were overhead they said. Police sources said they understood that U.S. troops had raided an area around the mosque and got into a gun battle with the Mehdi Army that left about 20 militiamen dead. Sadr aides said troops killed unarmed people: "The American forces went into Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers," Araji said. "They tied them up and shot them." Transport Minister Salem al-Maliki, from Sadr's group, said: "This was part of an escalation programme to drag Sadr's group into another battle or to obstruct the political process." After declining requests to respond to the allegations, the U.S. military issued a statement saying Iraqi special forces, along with U.S. advisers, killed 16 "insurgents" in Aadhamiya, next to Shaab, and detained 15. The statement denied any mosque was entered and said a foreign, non-Western hostage was freed. After the statement was issued, U.S. spokesmen declined to elaborate or say if the raid was close to the Mustafa mosque. There was also mystery over the details of the raid on the Interior Ministry facility, which one political source described as an Education Ministry warehouse in central Baghdad. A U.S. source confirmed American and Iraqi forces seized 41 Interior Ministry personnel and free 17 foreigners at a secret jail complex. There was no detail on their identities. Many foreign Muslims are accused of being Sunni al Qaeda sympathisers. Nor were the identities of those arrested clear. Shi'ite militias are accused of infiltrating the Interior Ministry. In November, U.S. troops freed 173 prisoners, some of them tortured, from a secret Interior Ministry facility in Baghdad. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #11 Sectarian troops would have to be able to concentrate, in order to carry out a civil war. This operation has shown that small concentrations can be crushed on short notice. Atrocity propaganda should not issue from Iraq media. Collateral damage is regretable but: blame those who hide behind civilians. A lying press is not a free press. |
| Posted by: Listen to Dogs 2006-03-27 16:59 |
| #10 More from Bill Roggio Powerplay .... The political maneuvering has begun in the aftermath of the raid on the Mahdi Army headquarters in the Hayy Ur neighborhood. Jawad al-Maliki, an ally of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and spokesman for the United Iraqi Alliance, has called "for a rapid restoration of (control of) security matters to the Iraqi government," according to Reuters. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reports "Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr today described the killing as 'unjustified.' Baghdad provincial Governor Husayn al-Tahan said he has suspended cooperation with U.S. forces until an independent investigation can be carried out." ..... It should be noted that the Iraqi politicians condemning the raid in Hayy Ur are allies of Jaafari and Muqtada al-Sadr, and the various other political groups (the Kurdish alliance, the Sunni groups, Allawi's secular party and even SCIRI) have remained silent on this issue. |
| Posted by: RD 2006-03-27 13:12 |
| #8 cyber sarge - they dont have to flee to safer countries, because the "civil warrish" stuff is confined to a few areas of Iraq. Heard a story about a refugee camp being set up in Najaf for Shiite refugees from the "triangle of death" south of Baghdad, and from Baghdad itself. Yet another glass half full glass half empty story - Najaf is safe, the "triangel of death" is one of the most ethnically polarized places in the country (its an area where Saddam had been bringing in Sunni "settlers" to a Shiite area) OTOH there DO seem to be internal refugees. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2006-03-27 11:53 |
| #7 What has become very telling in this backdrop of violence is the lack of refugees. If this were a true civil war wouldn’t thousands of Iraqis fleeing the “violence” for “safer” countries? I am no expert, but I suspect we are seeing more tit-for-tat revenge killings and the run-of-the-mill Iraqi knows they are not a target and doesn’t feel threatened by the killings. Now if somebody can point me to the reports of roaming bands of Sunnia/Shia/Kurds that are grab random people off the streets for execution I will consider my hypothesis null and void. Given the violence of the past it is surprising that more revenge killings are not being carried out. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2006-03-27 11:39 |
| #6 There's this from.. http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/ American forces clashed with Mahdi army militiamen at the Ur district (Hayy Ur), west of Sadr city in Baghdad. It seems an American force attempted to raid a husseiniya in the area and was resisted by militiamen inside. Between 18 and 21 militiamen have been killed, and the Al-Mustafa Husseiniya was reported to be badly damaged in the ensuing firefight. I was on the phone with a colleague who lived there and he described it as a battlefield. Apache helicopters and jet fighters are still circling the area. Al-Iraqiya TV just aired some images from the husseiniya. 17 'guards' were killed. One of the corpses carried a Da'wa party (Iraq organisation) ID, and another carried an ID issued by the Islamic Conference of Iraqi Tribes. Someone in the background was asking the cameraman to film grenades lying around the corpses, to which the cameraman responded: "I can't show our guys' grenades." "No, these are American grenades," the man in the background explained. "Oh, okay I'll film them." Al-Iraqiya TV was very critical of the attack, and is describing those killed as martyrs. # posted by Zeyad : 3/26/2006 09:36:00 PM |
| Posted by: RD 2006-03-27 11:33 |
| #5 I believe it's a Koran modus operandi. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-03-27 08:04 |
| #4 I'm so glad the Marines are not tieing up folks and executing them, let alone beheading them. Hey! Waitaminute! Isn't that a Zarqai modus operandi? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-03-27 07:35 |
| #3 Hi Verlaine! It sounds like they are keeping you busy. :-) Please do use the opportunity to say more than just the facts -- openly correct errors, too. Secretary Rumsfeld gets a lot of mileage when he sets his questioners straight. And the Iraqis need to understand we are not there as their Janissaries, and we will not put up with abuse. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-03-27 07:20 |
| #2 Reuters, always first with the (non) news, so long as its import is anti-US. MNC-I will be doing a briefing later today on the incident. Of course it's 100% nonsense (the Sadr claim). But some have urged our spokesmen to start going way beyond mere factual correction and refutation, and start slamming the Iraqis for their slanders and the media (both flavors) for their parroting of same. BTW, apparently the 30 "beheaded" bodies may well also be a complete fabrication. So far the Coalition has not been able to confirm the IA report. |
| Posted by: Verlaine in Iraq 2006-03-27 06:24 |
| #1 A Sadr hit and they get their BS version on the air in record time. This Iranian plan actually worked... so far. Jaafari is complicit - he knows US troops don't enter mosques, tie people up and execute them. Puppet Prick. And, of course, so is Iraqiya state television. All f..king Iranian puppets. We've wasted so much hoping these morons will rise above sectarian hate. The only thing they hate worse than each other is everyone else. |
| Posted by: Whimble Ebberetch1516 2006-03-27 05:15 |