US, Iraqi forces besiege Shi’ite mosque: police

By Lutfi Abu Oun

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. and Iraqi forces with armored
vehicles surrounded a Shi’ite mosque in southeastern Baghdad
after dark on Saturday in what appeared to be the latest
operation against Shi’ite militias, police said.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military or
the Iraqi Interior Ministry but a policeman at the scene
outside the Sadrain mosque in the Zafaraniya district said he
believed they were trying to arrest members of the Shi’ite
Mehdi Army militia.

The mosque is believed to be loyal to radical cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army fighters have been the target
of several recent operations by government and U.S. forces,
including a major raid on Baghdad’s Sadr City area on Friday.

The U.S. military said it captured a major militant suspect
accused of kidnappings and murders in that raid, although
Shi’ite political sources said a renowned local warlord known
as Abu Deraa, whose neighborhood was targeted, was still at
large.

The sources said the raid was part of a hunt for a Sunni
Arab lawmaker whose kidnap a week ago in a Shi’ite neighborhood
has prompted a boycott of parliament by her Sunni colleagues.

In another operation announced on Friday, the U.S. military
said it seized a Mehdi Army leader on Thursday whom it
suspected of importing surface-to-air missiles from Shi’ite
Iran.

Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said his national
unity coalition formed two months ago will crack down on
nominally pro-government Shi’ite militias as well as the
minority Sunni Arab insurgency.

He launched a security clampdown a month ago in the
capital, where dozens are dying every day in sectarian
violence.

Many Sunnis, dominant under Saddam Hussein, accuse the
Mehdi Army and other Shi’ite militias of running death squads.
Turning on Shi’ite gunmen will be problematic for Maliki,
however.

Sadr’s followers hold important ministries in his
government and their support was crucial to Maliki’s
appointment in April when his predecessor was forced to step
aside after lengthy internal Shi’ite wrangling that followed
December’s election.

When U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed a Baghdad building
believed to be used by the Mehdi Army in March and killed 22
men, Maliki led condemnation by the main Shi’ite parties, who
said the dead were Shi’ite civilians in a mosque.

U.S. officers called them militants and denied it was a
religious institution.