At Least 12 Iraqis Killed in Mosque Attacks

BAGHDAD â€”  Violence broke out between rival Shiite and Sunni Arab sects on the Muslim holy day Friday with two attacks on mosques killing at least 12 Iraqis and injuring dozens.

Meanwhile, both Shiite and Sunni prayer leaders denounced U.S. troops for acts of violence against Iraqis.

U.S. ground forces in armored vehicles backed by military aircraft, along with some Iraqi troops, early Friday launched an unusual raid in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least seven Shiite militiamen and wounding dozens in what the military described as a ferocious 43-minute fight.

U.S. officials hailed the raid as a success because of the capture of a “high-level insurgent,� who they said was responsible for killing and kidnapping civilians and attacking American and Iraqi forces.

The suspected insurgent, a former fishmonger known as Abu Daraa, launched a Shiite criminal gang after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime and joined radical cleric Muqtada Sadr’s Al Mahdi army, a Shiite militia, said a Shiite official who asked that his name not be used.

But the 3 a.m. raid, which caused no American casualties, drew swift condemnation from many Shiite religious leaders.

“The infidel American troops supported by the so-called Iraqi [soldiers] raided the city, killing and injuring a lot of innocent people using all kinds of weapons,� Sheik Abdul Zahra Swaidi told thousands of worshipers gathered for prayers in Sadr City, the vast neighborhood in eastern Baghdad that is home to many Sadr loyalists.

“This is an inexcusable act,� Sadruddin Qubanchi, a cleric linked to a rival Shiite group, told worshipers in the southern city of Najaf. “I demand that the Iraqi government show some explanation for this matter.�

U.S. forces announced that another Al Mahdi commander had been captured south of the capital.

Adnan Anabi was suspected of arms smuggling, laying roadside bombs, kidnapping Iraqis, spying for the Iranian government and “financing the operations of his organization through contacts in both Lebanon and Iran,� an American news release said.

The bombing Feb. 22 of a Shiite shrine complex in Samarra spurred a rise in sectarian hostility and militia activities, which have complicated U.S. efforts to stabilize the country and draw down its 130,000-troop contingent.

During Friday prayers, a mortar shell struck a Sunni mosque in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Qahira, killing three worshipers and injuring seven, police said.

In northern Iraq, near the city of Mosul, a car bomb exploded at a Shiite mosque as worshipers were leaving, killing nine and injuring 59, hospital officials said. The victims were Shiites displaced from the nearby city of Tall Afar, which the Americans point to as a model of successful counterinsurgency efforts.

“We moved here to escape sectarian violence and radical terror,� said Abbas Ali, a 25-year-old worshiper. “It followed us.�

Sadr has called upon Iraqis of both Muslim sects to head to Samarra and help rebuild the damaged shrine.

“Samarra is where the conflict began,� said a Sadr spokesman who goes by the name Abu Mostafa in his public comments. “In rebuilding the shrine, we will find the unity of Muslims.�

Sunni religious leaders spoke out about allegations that U.S. soldiers raped an Iraqi teenager and killed her and three family members in March.

“Where do we start to reflect upon our calamities?� Sheik Ahmed Abdel Ghafour, an imam at Baghdad’s influential Umm Qura mosque, told worshipers. “Shall we start with the Iraqi girl who was raped, killed, burned and then her family killed and her house burned? Is this American civilization? Is this the American liberation?�

Ghafour also blamed commandos of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry for the slaying of a fellow Sunni cleric this week, accusing them of executing the man before “raising up his turban and dancing and chanting.�

“If the Ministry of Interior is not purged and police forces are not dissolved, then Iraqis are forced to defend themselves,� he told worshipers. “Iraq is now ruled by the law of the jungle.�

In other developments Friday:

* Military officials announced that Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the No. 2 commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, had completed his review of the investigation of the “reporting, training and command climate� surrounding the alleged Nov. 19 massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians by U.S. troops in Haditha. Chiarelli has forwarded his review to his boss, Gen. George W. Casey Jr.

* Mortar shells struck a crowded market in a Shiite section of northern Baghdad, killing six and injuring 40 shortly before a 9 p.m. curfew went into effect, police said.

* A car bomb blast in front of the Baghdad home of a prominent Sunni businessman killed two of his children and injured a passerby.

* Mortar rounds struck a government building in the western city of Ramadi, killing at least one Iraqi soldier and injuring four, police said.

* Clashes between suspected insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi troops continued for a fifth day in Muqdadiya, a Sunni enclave about 25 miles northeast of Baqubah. Helicopters hovered over the area and loud explosions could be heard.

* Officials in the southern city of Basra announced an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew to stem growing lawlessness, including a barrage of rockets that struck compounds housing the British Consulate and the city’s airport.

* Technical problems in Turkey led to the shutdown of oil pumping operations near the northern city of Kirkuk, which exports 250,000 barrels of oil a day to the terminal in Jihan, Turkey, an oil company official said.

* Soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade discovered a field of marijuana in the Tikrit area this week, the military said, estimating the crop’s value at $2 million. The field’s owner was arrested by Iraqi police.

Times staff writers Saif Hameed and Saif Rasheed and special correspondents in Baghdad, Baqubah, Basra, Kirkuk, Mosul, Najaf and Ramadi contributed to this report.