American Attack on Mosque Invented by Iraqis, Pentagon Says
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON – Iraqi militiamen faked an American “desecration” of a mosque, the Pentagon said yesterday.
The militants moved the bodies of gunmen into the building in Baghdad to make it appear that American forces had killed them inside and insulted Islam, it was claimed.
Pictures of up to 20 corpses in the Baghdad mosque caused uproar in the Arab world and temporarily stalled talks on forming a new Iraqi government.
But yesterday General Peter Pace, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said that a combined Iraqi-American special forces operation had targeted an office building close to a mosque.
The attacking force had come under heavy fire and stormed the building, part of a complex used by followers of the extreme Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. At least 16 were reported killed.
General Pace showed photographs of military paraphernalia captured in the raid, which also freed a hostage.
A number of men were captured.
As the picture of captured rocket-propelled grenades flashed on to the screen, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, commented: “Those are not religious instruments.” General Pace described the attack as “a very good operation by Iraqi special forces.”
The response from the two men marked a belated response to the damage once again being done to America’s image by actions in Iraq.
It came almost two days after the raid, by which time many Arab news organizations had already broadcast Mr. al-Sadr’s version of the raid.
The issue has become so serious that the White House took the unusual step of briefing senior congressmen on the military operation.
Speaking afterwards, Senator Warner said: “I think the sooner those pictures are out, the sooner we can dispel that there was any wrong attack by our forces on a mosque or other buildings.” Iraq’s press has depicted the raid as a massacre of 22 unarmed worshippers. The country’s president, Jalal Talabani, has demanded that those “responsible” be punished. He has also called for a joint Iraqi-American inquiry into the deaths. The governor of Baghdad said local government had cut all ties to the American forces and Iran condemned what it termed a “terrorist” attack. The compound is a former Baath party building, known to have been taken over by radical militiamen.
