Clerics condemn mutilations

U.S. officials said they would choose the time and place for their actions.
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- A senior Islamic cleric said preachers in mosques across this defiant Muslim city would use weekly prayers to condemn the mutilation of four slain American contractors, but he didn't say if that would include their deaths.
U.S. officials, meanwhile, promised today to hunt down those responsible but said clashes could be avoided if city officials act promptly against the insurgents. No U.S. forces were seen in the city, 35 miles west of Baghdad.
Senior Fallujah cleric Sheik Khalid Ahmed said Muslim preachers would tell their followers that the mutilation of the bodies was wrong.
He did not say whether they would condemn the killings of the Americans, whose charred remains were dragged through the streets for hours after insurgents ambushed their SUVs on Wednesday.
"Prophet Muhammad prohibited even the mutilation of a dead mad dog, and he considered such a thing as religiously forbidden. What happened in Fallujah is a distortion of Islamic principles and it is forbidden in Islam. We condemn such acts and all Fallujah clerics will do so during the Friday prayers," he told The Associated Press.
What's vowed
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt pledged to hunt down those who carried out Wednesday's killings -- but he added that clashes could be avoided if Fallujah city officials arrest those responsible for the murders.
A Fallujah city council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the council met late Thursday and issued a statement "condemning the mutilation of the bodies in the streets because it contradicts the teachings of Islam and it is unacceptable in the religious point of view."
He did not say whether a decision was made to take action against those responsible for the killings.
The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council also issued a statement condemning "the cold-blooded slaughter and mutilation of civilians" and vowed that "those murderers who carried out these terrorist acts will not hinder or disrupt the march of our people toward the dawn of freedom and democracy."
Police today were manning regular roadside checkpoints and there was no sign of U.S. troops in or around the city. American commanders have said they would act "at the time and place of our choosing."
In the city of Baqouba, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, gunmen fired on two police cars late Thursday, killing three officers and wounding two, said Loua'ie Adel, an official at Baqouba General Hospital.