January 03, 2004

US: Mosque raiders sensitive, successful (United Press International)

Coalition troops who raided a Sunni Muslim mosque Friday in Baghdad did not defile the sacred space in their successful hunt for weapons, officials said.

The raid of the Ibn Taymiyah mosque in the southwestern part of the Iraqi capital sparked protests, including charges that U.S. troops tore pages out of the mosque's Koran, CNN reported.
[Ah, yes! The good old Crescent News Network, always blaming America first. Sheesh!--Jen]

But Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt denied the accusations, saying the troops took unusual precautions to show respect, including following Iraq Civil Defense Corps personnel and Iraqi police when they entered the place of worship.

"Despite the clear use of this mosque for criminal, terrorist and anti-coalition activities, great care was taken by coalition forces to uphold the sanctity of the mosque and to use the minimum amount of force necessary to conduct the operation," Kimmitt said.

He called called the mosque a "hub of anti-coalition and anti-Iraqi activities" and the scene of insurgency cells' meetings.

Kimmitt said the mosque held high explosives, TNT, blasting caps, gunpowder, grenades, detonation cord, artillery primers, rocket launchers, mortar tubes and sights, AK-47 rifles and ammunition. Soldiers also found materials for making the small bombs regularly used to target coalition convoys.

I continue to be so proud of our US (and Coalition) troops!
Clearly, this mosque had to be raided, because it's the Sunnis in Iraq, and around the Arab world, who have declared a fatwa on the Great Satan and of course, it's the Baathist Sunnis who continue the "resistance" on behalf of Saddam, even though he's sitting in our jail.
If we had to raid the mosque, though, I'm pleased as punch that we did do it with sensitivity to the Sunni Muslims' beliefs and feelings and respect for their place of worship, even though it sounds like it was nothing more than an arsenal and ammo dump!
(All that was missing was an altar to St. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite!)