Two killed in Baghdad mosque clash; Iraqi troops prepare assault in Mosul

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi national guardsmen raided a Sunni mosque in Baghdad after Friday prayers, sparking bloody clashes, an AFP correspondent reported, while in the northern city of Mosul US-backed Iraqi commandos were poised to storm rebel strongholds.
Two car bombs also exploded Friday, one targeting a police patrol in a Baghdad neighbourhood and another missing a US convoy in a town northeast of Mosul. There were no immediate reports of casualties in either incident.
Medical sources said two Iraqis were killed and nine wounded in the clashes inside the Abu Hanifa mosque, which is considered one of the most important Sunni mosques in Iraq and has already been raided several times by US forces.
Some 200 to 300 national guardsmen stormed the mosque after prayers, throwing sound grenades and firing shots in the air, the correspondent said.
Between 30 and 40 people were rounded up by US troops who arrived on the scene later and withdrew in the afternoon.
During his sermon, the mosque imam had charged that after their onslaught on the rebel city of Fallujah in western Iraq, US forces would target Latifiyah.
The town, which lies a few kilometres south of Baghdad, commands access to most of southern Iraq from the capital and is an area where scores of Iraqis and foreigners have been killed or kidnapped by Sunni rebels.
The zone is known as "the death triangle" or "Fallujah`s second head".
Despite continuing violence, US military commanders said they had "broken the back" of the Iraqi insurgency with their assault on Fallujah.
Sporadic battles continued in Fallujah 11 days after the start of the US-led Operation Dawn against the Sunni Muslim city, west of Baghdad. The US says some 1,200 insurgents have been killed in the fighting in which at least 51 US troops and eight Iraqi soldiers were killed.
Lieutenant General John Sattler said the city was now secure but not safe after the operation. Heavy fighting was still occurring in some parts as marines and Iraqi troops cleared buildings of holdouts.
"We feel right now that we have ... broken the back of the insurgency and we`ve taken away the safe haven," Sattler said, adding that this would force the insurgents to set up operations in less familiar areas with untested allies.
A London-based newspaper meanwhile said that a former bodyguard of Saddam Hussein and top aide to Iraq`s most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, led the battle in Fallujah against US-led forces.
Quoting Iraqi intelligence sources, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper said Fallujan Omar Hadeed "led the battle and is the main aide of ... Zarqawi."
It did not say whether he died in the fighting or had escaped.
A US marine intelligence report warned that any big troop withdrawal from Fallujah would strengthen the insurgency, The New York Times said Thursday.
The assessment distributed to senior marine and army officers in Iraq said insurgents would increase in number, carrying out attacks and fomenting unrest.
Military officials in Iraq and Washington disputed the report`s findings, saying they represented only the "worst-case assessment" and that in any case US troops would not completely pull out of the city.
The assault on Fallujah, part of a bid to reclaim key rebel enclaves across the country ahead of January elections, has been the largest military operation in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.
Despite attempts to crush the insurgency before the polls, a statement posted on the website of Sunni Muslim militant group Ansar al-Sunna Thursday threatened to attack both candidates and voters in elections.
"We will target anyone who dares to stand in these elections," said the statement, whose authenticity could not be independently verified.
As fighting winds down in Fallujah, Iraqi commandos were set to storm rebel strongholds in the main northern city of Mosul, where US-led forces are trying to clear insurgents who overran police stations last week.
"The attempt by insurgents to intimidate and to create instability in Mosul has failed. Iraqi police and other security forces have re-established a firm control of the city," said Thair al-Nakib, a spokesman for Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
About 1,200 US soldiers and 1,600 Iraqi troops are taking part in the Mosul operation, launched Tuesday after insurgents attacked and burnt police stations.
On Friday, US troops in armoured Stryker vehicles rumbled across bridges closed to others and through some of the worst areas on the city`s west side.
The day was largely quiet in this city of two million after clashes and violence over the past nine days left more than 50 insurgents, at least 20 Iraqi security forces and one US soldier dead, according to the US military.
In the town of Hay al-Masharef, northeast of Mosul, an explosives-laden car exploded as a US patrol passed by. Witnesses said the blast failed to hit its target and caused only material damage.
Meanwhile, US and Iraqi troops raided the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk and arrested 35 people suspected of involvement in attacks, police said.
Elsewhere, Australia`s World Vision announced Friday it was pulling out of Iraq after the murders of its own head of operations and CARE Australia aid worker Margaret Hassan.
World`s Vision`s Iraqi chief, Mohammed Hushiar, was shot dead by gunmen in Mosul on September 29 and Irish-born Iraqi citizen Margaret Hassan is believed to have been murdered earlier this week.

11/19/2004 - 17:11 GMT - AFP