U.S. and Iraq forces raided Shiite areas during prayers

[DogPoundPup]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces detained nearly 200 people during operations that targeted two prominently Shiite Muslim neighborhoods during Friday prayer services, the U.S. military said Saturday.

The searches occurred between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the Muslim sabbath in the Bayaa and Amal sectors of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed a prayer service that was being held in an office belonging to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr and detained several of the participants.

More than 500 people were questioned, the military said, and a weapons cache was found near the office.

A military spokesmen stressed that the raid had been on an office and not on a mosque. U.S. forces "would not go into a mosque," said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, the spokesman for military operations in Baghdad. "We do not want to offend the very people our primary mission here is to protect."

But the timing of the searches and the targeting of Shiite areas touched on several religious sensitivities in this country where sectarian rivalries often are deadly.

In Basra, on Friday, Iraqi forces killed at least one student and wounded six other people when they opened fire on a group that appeared to be headed to prayer in a public area. Iraqi forces have banned public areas from being used for prayer in the aftermath of a security crackdown on Sadr's forces in Basra.

The symbolism is strong. Outdoor prayers were also banned during Saddam Hussein's rule, and one of the first major celebrations of Saddam's fall was a huge outdoor prayer service in Sadr City on the first Friday after Saddam's statue was toppled in Baghdad.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/38427.html

[Wizard777]

1. They are abusing the Shiites trying to invoke a response from Iran.

It's like trying to make a man fight you by beating his dog. Eventually he'll come to the dogs defense.

[DogPoundPup]

2. Thank you for your insight n/t

[ohio2007]

3. Bayaa and Amal also are strongholds of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

Iraqi forces stormed a prayer service that was being held in an office belonging to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr and detained several of the participants.

More than 500 people were questioned, the military said, and a weapons cache was found


http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/38427.html

Wonder what the firebrand clerics were preaching that the Iraqi forces heard to move in and find illegal heavy weapons ? Infidels do not enter the mosques so no rules were broken. I'm sure the bait not being taken pissed off a few holy men.

jmo