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BAGHDAD, March
28, -- Shi'ite politicians raged at the United
States and halted negotiations on a new government
yesterday after a military assault killed at least
16 people in what Iraqis say 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 probably make it harder for
Shi'ite politicians to keep a lid on their more
angry followers as sectarian violence boils over,
with at least 151 dead over the two-day period. A
unity government involving Shi'ites, Sunnis, and
Kurds is a benchmark for American hopes of starting
to withdraw troops this summer.
There were numerous conflicting statements from
Iraqis and the Americans about the raid. Iraqi
police, Shi'ite militia officials and major
politicians have all said the structure attacked was
the al Mustafa mosque. But the US military disputed
this, saying no mosques were entered and that the
raid targeted a building used by ''insurgents
responsible for kidnapping and execution
activities."
In a conference call with reporters early today,
Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, deputy commander
in Iraq, and Major General J.D. Thurman, commander
of the Fourth Infantry Division, which is in control
of Baghdad, said 25 US forces were in a backup role
to 50 Iraqi Special Operations troops.
The mission, the generals said, was developed by the
Iraqis on their intelligence that an Iraqi dental
technician, kidnapped 12 hours earlier because he
could not come up with $20,000, was being held in
what they called an office complex.
''It's important to remember we had an Iraqi unit
with us, an Iraqi unit of 50 folks and they told us
point blank that this was not a mosque," Chiarelli
said.
In an earlier statement, the military said the
building had been under US observation for some
time. It said gunmen opened fire as Iraqi special
operations troops closed in. It said the troops then
killed 16 insurgents and wounded three ''during a
house-to-house search," detained 18 men, found a
significant weapons cache, and freed the hostage.
''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 Lieutenant
Colonel Barry Johnson, a US military spokesman.
Police put the death toll at 17 -- seven members of
Sadr's militia, seven civilians, and three Shi'ite
political activists.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said he called US
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and that they decided to
form an Iraqi-US committee to investigate.
''Those who are behind this attack must be brought
to the justice and punished," Talabani said.
The United Iraqi Alliance, the largest Shi'ite bloc
in parliament, canceled yesterday's session of
negotiations to form a new government because of the
raid, said lawmaker Jawad al Maliki.
Yesterday's major suicide bombing took place at an
Iraqi Army recruiting office near the gate of a
US-Iraq military base about 20 miles east of Tal
Afar, an ancient city not far from the Syrian
border.
AP
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