Shiites, Sunnis decry U.S. actions

American commanders said they captured a high-level insurgent.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Violence broke out between rival Shiite and Sunni Arab sects on the Muslim day of worship Friday with a pair of attacks on mosques killing at least 12 Iraqis and injuring dozens.
Meanwhile, both Shiite and Sunni prayer leaders took to the pulpit to denounce 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, launched an unusual raid early Friday morning in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, killing at least seven Shiite militiamen and wounding dozens in what the military described as a ferocious 43-minute firefight.
U.S. officials hailed the raid as a success due to the capture of a "high-level insurgent" who, they said, was responsible for killing and kidnapping civilians and attacks on American and Iraqi forces.
The suspect, a former fishmonger nicknamed Abu Daraa, launched a Shiite criminal gang after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime and joined the ranks of the al-Mahdi, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, said a Shiite official who asked that his name not be used.
Raid reactions
But the 3 a.m. raid, which caused no U.S. 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 al-Suwaidi told thousands of worshippers gathered for prayers in Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad that is home to many al-Sadr loyalists.
"This is an inexcusable act," Sheik Sadraldin Qabanchi, a cleric linked to a rival Shiite group, told worshippers in the southern city of Najaf. "I demand that the Iraqi government show some explanation for this matter."
U.S. forces announced the capture of another al-Mahdi commander south of the capital. Adnan Anabi was allegedly responsible for 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.
On Friday, a mortar shell struck a Sunni mosque in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Qahira during Friday prayers, killing three worshippers and injuring seven, police said.
In northern Iraq, near the city of Mosul, a car bomb struck a Shiite mosque as worshippers left following Friday payers, killing nine and injuring 59, hospital officials said. The victims were Shiites displaced from the nearby city of Tal Afar, which is held up by Americans as a model of successful counterinsurgency efforts.
"We moved here to escape sectarian violence and radical terror," said Abbas Ali, a 25-year-old worshipper. "It followed us."
Al-Sadr has called upon Iraqis of both Muslim sects to head to Samarra to help rebuild a Shiite shrine complex that was the target of a Feb. 22 bombing that spurred a rise in sectarian hatred and militia activities. "Samarra is where the conflict began," said an al-Sadr spokesman who goes by the honorific "Abu Mostafa" in his public comments. "In rebuilding the shrine we will find the unity of Muslims."
Alleged atrocities
Sunni religious leaders also took to the pulpit Friday to attack Americans, decrying U.S. soldiers for the alleged rape and murder of an Iraqi woman and her family that came to light in recent days.
"Where we do start to reflect upon our calamities?" Sheik Ahmad Abdul-Ghafoor Samaraii, leader of Baghdad's influential Um Qura mosque, told worshippers. "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?"
In other developments Friday:
Mortar shells struck a crowded market in a Shiite section of northern Baghdad shortly before a 9 p.m. curfew went into effect, killing six and injuring 40, police said.
A car bomb explosion in front of the Baghdad home of a prominent Sunni businessman killed two of his children and injured a passer-by.
Mortars struck a government building in the western city of Ramadi, killing at least one Iraqi soldier and injuring four others, according to police.