IRAQ: US and Iraqi forces stepped up their hunt for Islamic leaders inciting violence against the authorities yesterday, killing four people and arresting 40 others during a raid on a hardline Sunni mosque in northern Baghdad.
The operation after midday prayers at the Abu Hanifa mosque, in the conservative Adhamiya district, came after a new government declaration to hunt down those calling for violence.
Adhamiya is an area with a strong insurgent base and connections to the town of Falluja, 40 miles west of Baghdad, where US troops have fought a two-week operation against guerrilla forces. Saddam Hussein was reportedly seen at the mosque in the final days of the battle for Baghdad last year.
At least 10 US armoured vehicles drew up outside it shortly after Friday prayers, along with two other vehicles carrying around 40 Iraqi national guardsmen.
Most of the American forces secured the outside of the mosque as the Iraqis went inside, but some US troops were seen inside. Several explosions were heard, some from stun grenades. In the clerics' offices furniture was overturned and books and a computer thrown on the ground. At least five people were injured.
A day earlier the Iraqi government said anyone inciting attacks would be considered to be "participating in terrorism". "The government is determined to pursue those who incite acts of violence," said a spokesman for Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi.
US troops have arrested several high-profile clerics from the Muslim Clerics' Association, another hardline Sunni group based in western Baghdad and regarded as having close links to the insurgency.
American commanders are still clearing Falluja of rubble now that the worst fighting is over. At least 51 US troops were killed and about 400 injured in the operation. Officers said they had discovered a house that appeared to have been used by a militant group led by the Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Troops found a computer with its hard-drive missing, several landmines and two letters, one from Zarqawi giving instructions to his men. "Al-Qaeda organisation", the latest name under which the group operated, was written on the wall in Arabic.
In a nearby workshop, troops found a four-wheel drive vehicle registered in Texas, which had been stripped - apparently to be made into a car bomb. Sketches showing flight plans and instructions on how to shoot down jet fighters were found on a classroom wall.
Further north in the city of Mosul, US forces launched several raids overnight, killing at least 15 suspected insurgents.