U.S. Forces Conduct Baghdad Raids

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Associated Press | December 01, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - American forces conducted raids in and around Baghdad on Friday, killing two insurgents and wounding an Iraqi woman the militants were using as a "human shield," the U.S. command said.

In the capital, sectarian violence killed at least four Iraqis and wounded 23, police said, and a Sunni-Arab mosque was attacked by men armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

Meanwhile, there was no sign that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was having any luck stopping a widening revolt within his divided government.

On Thursday, two senior Sunni politicians joined prominent Shiite lawmakers and Cabinet members in criticizing his policies. Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi said he wanted to see al-Maliki's government gone and another "understanding" for a new coalition put in place with guarantees that ensure collective decision-making.

"There is a clear deterioration in security and everything is moving in the wrong direction," the Sunni leader told The Associated Press. "This situation must be redressed as soon as possible. If they continue, the country will plunge into civil war."

Al-Maliki's No. 2, Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie, also a Sunni, argued that the president's government failed to curb the spread of sectarian politics.

The boycott by 30 lawmakers and five Cabinet ministers loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was in protest of al-Maliki's meeting with President Bush in Jordan on Thursday. The Sadrists said the meeting amounted to an affront to the Iraqi people.

Al-Maliki appealed to the Sadrists to end their boycott and admonished them for an action that he said violated the commitment expected from partners in his 6-month-old coalition government.

In an interview on Friday, Falah Hassan Shanshal, a Shiite lawmaker with the Sadrist group, said: "There is nothing new regarding our stance."

He criticized al-Maliki for winning a unanimous vote by the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to extend for one year the mandate of the 160,000-strong multinational force in Iraq. At the time, the prime minister said a top priority of his government was to assume full responsibility for security and stability throughout Iraq, but that it needs more time.

Shanshal said the boycotters will await the reaction to the U.N. vote by Iraq's 275-seat Parliament when it meets next on Tuesday.

U.S. military raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents occurred early Friday in Baghdad, the town of Youssifiyah to the south, and two locations to the north: near Taji, the U.S. Air Force base and the town of Tarmiyah.

In the Taji area, coalition forces fought with insurgents, killing one and "wounding a female local national who was being used as human shield by the terrorist," the U.S. command said in a statement.

The female, whose name and age were not given, was hospitalized nearby in stable condition, the U.S. military said.

"Terrorists continue to deliberately place innocent Iraqi women and children in danger by their actions and presence," the statement said. Ground forces also detained 14 suspected insurgents during the raid, including "a known foreign fighter facilitator" who was not identified.

In Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad, ground forces searching for "a foreign fighter safe house" shot and killed an armed insurgent and found and destroyed a weapons cache, the military said.

In Baghdad, U.S. forces detained the leader of a cell of insurgents that makes car bombs and eight suspected militants, the military said.

Two other raids netted four more detainees during operations around Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad, the command said.

Meanwhile, sectarian violence continued in the capital.

Men armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades drove into a mostly Sunni-Arab section of west Baghdad at 2 a.m. Friday and opened fire on a small mosque, a police officer said. The grenades set fire to holy books inside the al-Quds Sunni mosque, which was empty at the time. Neighbors opened fire on the attackers, forcing them to flee, the officer said on condition of anonymity out of concern for his own security. No casualties were reported.

In Sadiyah, a primarily Sunni area of southwestern Baghdad, a Shiite man was killed and six of his relatives were wounded when a bomb explosion drew them outside their house at 6:30 a.m., and a second bomb then exploded right near them, a police officer said on condition of anonymity to protect his own security.

A roadside bomb also exploded in a commercial square in the center of Baghdad at 9:40 a.m., killing three civilians and wounding 17, said police Lt. Ali Muhsin said.

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