Friday, February 16, 2007
SCIRI member denounces raid on mosque
Security, Politics
(McClatchy Newspapers) A U.S. military spokesman Thursday hailed a joint American-Iraqi raid on Baghdad’s leading Shiite mosque as proof that the security plan is being applied evenly across the sectarian divide. The raid, which took place Wednesday, angered the mosque’s imam, who took the unusual step of canceling today’s prayer services at the historic Baratha mosque.
Sheik Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a member of parliament from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), denounced the raid, which the U.S. military said had turned up a cache of illegal weapons. Searching mosques has been a particularly sensitive issue since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. In delivering the decree that legalized the security plan this week, Lt. Gen. Aboud Qanbar of the Iraqi army said that soldiers would enter mosques only if they were used “for illegal purposes” or to protect citizens from harm.
The U.S. military said that the mosque was raided “during operations targeting illegally armed militia kidnapping, torture and murder activities.” It said the mosque was used “to conduct sectarian violence against Iraqi civilians as well as a safe haven and weapons storage area for illegal militia groups.” Sunnis have reported being held and beaten in the mosque.
U.S. forces provided protection around the mosque while Iraqi soldiers entered it with the cooperation of its security guards, the military statement said. Three Russian PKC machine guns and 80 assault rifles were seized, the statement said. Saghir said that the mosque was raided by Americans who, he alleged, had relied on false intelligence. He said the Americans were looking for “prisons, vaults and torturing operations.”
Sheik Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a member of parliament from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), denounced the raid, which the U.S. military said had turned up a cache of illegal weapons. Searching mosques has been a particularly sensitive issue since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. In delivering the decree that legalized the security plan this week, Lt. Gen. Aboud Qanbar of the Iraqi army said that soldiers would enter mosques only if they were used “for illegal purposes” or to protect citizens from harm.
The U.S. military said that the mosque was raided “during operations targeting illegally armed militia kidnapping, torture and murder activities.” It said the mosque was used “to conduct sectarian violence against Iraqi civilians as well as a safe haven and weapons storage area for illegal militia groups.” Sunnis have reported being held and beaten in the mosque.
U.S. forces provided protection around the mosque while Iraqi soldiers entered it with the cooperation of its security guards, the military statement said. Three Russian PKC machine guns and 80 assault rifles were seized, the statement said. Saghir said that the mosque was raided by Americans who, he alleged, had relied on false intelligence. He said the Americans were looking for “prisons, vaults and torturing operations.”
Labels: mosque raid, SCIRI, weapons cache
