Mosque War

An explosion occurred in a mosque in the Iraqi town of Haswa, located 50 km south of Baghdad, yesterday morning. Six hours later, an explosive device went off near the imam’s house near the mosque in the city of Hilla, 95 km south of the Iraqi capital. The clergyman, who noticed the approach of the militants, managed to escape. Both mosques, according to police, were heavily damaged, but there were no casualties.

Both cities have a predominantly Sunni population. Apparently, these terrorist attacks were a response to the bombing of a Shiite mosque in Baghdad on Tuesday, which killed 87 people and injured 124. These explosions indicate a new round of sectarian conflict fueling the fires of the Iraq war.

The epicenter of the fighting this week was the city of Ba'quba, the administrative center of Diyala province, located a hundred kilometers north of Baghdad. A stronghold of Sunni rebels linked to al-Qaeda has been cleared there since Tuesday. The operation involves 10,000 US military personnel and seven thousand Iraqi soldiers and police.

The command of US forces in Iraq reported the destruction of at least 30 militants and the detention of 13 people suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda. 14 landmines were neutralized, three vehicles with explosives intended for equipping suicide bombers, and three warehouses with weapons and ammunition were captured.

On Tuesday, it became known that an American soldier was killed in Ba'aquba as a result of a roadside bomb explosion. US troop losses since the start of the operation in Iraq in March 2003 have exceeded 3,520 people.

Victor VOLODIN