January 10, 2006

Mosque Raided, Cleric Detained in Baghdad as Troops Search for Jill Carroll

Wait, you mean a mosque might be connected to the abduction by al Qaeda of American journalist Jill Carroll? We at The Jawa Report are shocked, SHOCKED, SHOCKED! And how do certain segments of the Sunni population react? Why, they are indignent that the insurgent supporting Association of Muslim Scholars would be implicated or that any infidel Shia, Christian, or Jew would dare enter a mosque (which we all know are never used to hide insurgents or weapons).

Christian Science Monitor:

Several hundred Sunni Arabs protested Tuesday the raid on a Baghdad mosque Saturday by US and Iraqi soldiers looking for Jill Carroll, a kidnapped freelance journalist on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor....

The US military told AFP that the raid was linked to the hunt for Carroll. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a US military spokesman, said the raid was ordered "as a direct result of a tip by an Iraqi civilian that activities related to the kidnapping were being carried out inside the mosque." ...

"Both Iraqi and coalition forces raided the mosque in the early morning hours in order to minimize the impact on worshipers and the surrounding neighborhood," Johnson told AFP Tuesday.

Six people were detained for questioning, he added.

The Association of Muslim Scholars, which is based at the mosque, confirmed that one of its members, Yunis Aikali, and five mosque guards were arrested in the raid.

More in The Jawa Report's Hostage Archive and the newly created Jill Carroll Archive.

UPDATE: Just as I was posting this Traderrob saw the same story and posted on it here along with satellite images of the mosque and neighborhood in question.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 03:19 PM | |