Sectarian killings could escalate violence
BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. troops backed by attack helicopters clashed with militants in a Mosul neighborhood Tuesday, killing 20, the military and Iraqi officials said.
In Baghdad, gunmen killed a Shiite Muslim cleric, and two missing Sunni clerics were found shot dead, police said.
The killings of the clerics threatened to increase sectarian tensions in Iraq a day after the government vowed to crack down on anyone targeting Shiites and Sunnis. The defense minister said Iraqi troops no longer would be allowed to enter houses of worship or universities.
“I am hearing that Iraqi National Guards are raiding mosques and Shiite town houses,” Defense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi said Monday. “We have issued orders to all units that say it is strictly prohibited to all members of the defense ministry to raid mosques, Shiite town houses and churches.”
Those orders follow a call by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for greater inclusion of Sunnis in Iraq’s political process. Militants belonging to the disaffected Sunni Arab minority are believed to be driving the insurgency, and respect for mosques is a sensitive issue.
On Tuesday, U.S. troops and militants clashed in the northern city of Mosul, and heavy exchanges of machine-gun fire were heard, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
U.S. forces were seen advancing into the eastern neighborhood of Dhubbat, a known insurgent stronghold in Iraq’s third-largest city, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. The city has suffered well-organized attacks by insurgents and dozens of car bombings.
U.S. military spokesman Sgt. John H. Franzen said American troops were investigating reports that a homemade bomb was planted in the area when they came under fire from militants. But Lt. Gen. Ahmad Mohammed Khalaf, commander of Mosul’s police forces, said U.S. aircraft destroyed two homes where the militants were holed up, killing 20.
A statement released earlier by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Mosul said troops detained nine suspected terrorists in separate operations Monday and Tuesday.
Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Baghdad to pledge support for Iraq’s reconstruction, marking the highest-level visit by an Iranian official since Saddam Hussein’s ouster. Zebari, a Kurd, said militants have crossed the Iraq-Iran border “but we are not saying that they are approved by the Iranian government.”
The neighboring countries fought an eight-year war during the 1980s that killed more than 1 million people, but ties improved after the U.S.-led invasion that swept Saddam from power. Iraq’s majority Shiite community has since risen to power and worked to build close ties with Iran, a Shiite-dominated republic.