Iraqi Government demands US cede control after "cold-blooded" killings in mosque assault

Wow, did the US military blotch this one. They attacked a mosque, always an iffy proposition, and looks like they screwed the pooch.

"The Alliance calls for a rapid restoration of (control of) security matters to the Iraqi government," Jawad al-Maliki, a senior spokesman of the Shiite Islamist Alliance and ally of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, told a news conference.

Government-run television repeated lengthy footage of the bodies of men in civilian clothes with no weapons in sight.

Baghdad provincial governor Hussein al-Tahan said he would halt all cooperation with US forces.

The US media is covering this story a little later than the foreign press:

U.S. military and Iraqi officials offered conflicting accounts of the raid. Iraqi officials said that as many as 22 unarmed worshipers were killed in the operation late Sunday on al-Moustafa mosque, where many loyalists of the Mahdi Army and followers of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr pray.

What remains to be seen is whether this rift between the Shiites and the Americans can be quickly repaired as Iraq, with the heavy involvement of U.S. diplomats and military commanders, attempts to put together a government that is widely acceptable in this increasingly divided nation.

While the U.S. military disputes essential facts of the incident, the United Iraqi Alliance was quick to condemn the raid and blamed both the Americans and Iraqi forces for acting without restraint. Many Shiite political leaders, mindful of Sadr's political clout, were unwilling to directly contradict his account.

OK, looks like the US military didn't even know it was a mosque. And that is a good thing how? The right bloggers are going to be pointing to the reports of arms and bomb making material in the mosque but the Iraqi political and religious leaders seem to have been so far been silent on that issue.

IMHO this really changes nothing but might give the silent US media an opportunity to discuss the ruling parties in the new Iraqi almost government, their distrust of the US, and the incredibly destabilizing situation.

Spoke too soon, about blame - the spin story might be evolving that it was an Iraqi lead operation.


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