U.S. forces storm mosque
President Bush in a speech tonight at 7 p.m. will lay out details of his plan to cede political power to an interim government of Iraqis on June 30 at a time when his approval ratings are at the lowest level of his presidency and just six months before he faces the verdict of American voters on a second term.
Meanwhile, military officials strongly denied a report in The Washington Post that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, witnessed "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse" at the troubled Abu Ghraib prison.
Also Sunday, an Iranian official acknowledged his country held talks with embattled Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi but denied that Chalabi passed secrets to Iran.
The spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry also said that Iran recently sent a formal warning to the United States about its actions in Iraq, Reuters reported. He would not disclose specifics, but speculation arose that the warning could have been prompted by U.S. military actions in Najaf and Karbala, home to shrines sacred to the Shiite Muslim majorities in both Iran and Iraq.
But in an offensive described as a show of force, American tanks, troops and aircraft staged a major operation in Kufa, aided by an Iraqi force that stormed the green-domed Sahla mosque, Reuters reported.
The attack killed 32 insurgents, the military said, while local hospital officials also reported several civilians were wounded. There were no reports of U.S. casualties.
U.S. soldiers, who entered the mosque after the Iraqi force "cleared" it, found a small cache of arms. U.S. commanders have repeatedly complained that al-Sadr's fighters use mosques as cover, as well as for weapons storage and firing positions.
There was no report of damage to a shrine at the Sahla mosque dedicated to ninth-century cleric Imam Mahdi, who is the namesake for al-Sadr's militia.
"We have no intention of entering the shrines," Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the U.S. commander in the area, told reporters.
But some Kufa residents were still angered by the attack.
"I feel humiliated, our sanctity has been violated," resident Ali Wasi told Reuters. "These houses of prayer are the most valuable thing we own, for Shiites."
A local tribal leader, Sheik Mansoor al-Asadi, told the Associated Press he was "astonished" by the raid on the Kufa mosque, saying it damaged attempts by Shiite leaders to broker a truce between al-Sadr and the Americans.
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