Ironduke

US bombards Iraq mosque complex

A US air strike has killed as many as 40 people inside a mosque compound during heavy fighting in the Sunni Muslim Iraqi town of Falluja.
A US Marine colonel said the strike targeted insurgents who had fired on US troops from inside the mosque.

The incident came as coalition troops fought separate uprisings by both Sunni and Shia Muslims in several towns.

The US military has vowed to "destroy" the militia of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.

Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the coalition's local headquarters in the southern town of Kut, which is now under the control of Mr Sadr's Mehdi Army.


More than 100 Iraqis have died in three days of clashes in areas to the west and south of the capital, Baghdad.
At least 30 coalition troops have also been killed, including 12 US marines in a single attack in the town of Ramadi on Tuesday.

In Falluja, a reporter for the Associated Press saw cars carrying the dead and wounded from the Abdul-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque, following the US air strike.

The US Marine colonel said his troops attacked the mosque complex because Sunni insurgents were using the site to fire on US forces with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

Lt Col Brennan Byrne said an attack helicopter fired a missile at the site before another aircraft dropped a laser-guided bomb.

Residents said the office of a religious organisation was hit.

It was not clear if the mosque itself was hit.

Maj Gen James Mattis, 1st Marine Division commander, defended the attack.

"If they barricade themselves inside a mosque, we are not going to care about the mosque any more than they do," said Gen Mattis, quoted by the AFP news agency.

Escalation

The US military this week launched an operation to "pacify" Falluja and Ramadi - both within the Sunni triangle that has until now been the centre of opposition to the occupation.

The aim is to flush out insurgents who killed four American contractors last week, dragging their burned and mutilated bodies through the streets.

But violence by the Shia Muslim Mehdi Army has opened a second front for US-led coalition troops.

An aide to Mr Sadr was killed in overnight clashes with coalition troops in the town of Karbala. The aide was identified as Sayyed Murtada al-Musawi, who ran Mr Sadr's office in the town, where Polish-led troops are based.

Mr Sadr's Mehdi Army was created in June 2003 and is thought to have up to 10,000 members.

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