The US military has raided a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad and says it has seized arms and explosives in an operation that sparked an angry Muslim protest after prayers.
More than 1,000 worshippers at the al-Tabool mosque denounced yesterday's raid in an emotional demonstration and accused US troops of trampling on the Koran, or Muslim holy book.
"American soldiers entered the mosque with their shoes on and with machine guns in their hands," the imam, Abdulsatar al-Janabi, said, adding the raid had lasted five hours.
"They trampled on the holy Koran, beat up some of the worshippers and stole computers and a donations box," he said. Others claimed that a page was torn from the Koran.
Protesters today screamed and cried, chanting: "God is great" and "America is the enemy of God".
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, a US military spokesman, said troops had conducted the operation after a tip off from Iraqis and netted a wide array of weaponry to be used against occupying forces facing a relentless insurgency.
"Over recent months, the US 1st Armoured Division has received numerous reports from Iraqis that the al-Tabool mosque was being used for criminal and terrorist activities," Brig Gen Kimmitt told a news conference today.
"US forces, led by the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps and the Iraqi police therefore conducted a cordon and search."
He said troops had found several sticks of high explosives, hand grenades, AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
"There is clear evidence from what we seized that this mosque was being used for things other than free religious expression," Brig Gen Kimmitt said.
He said 32 people had been detained, including several believed to be foreigners, and dismissed suggestions that US forces might have defiled the mosque.
"We are aware of the allegation that coalition forces tore pages from the Koran... But I can assure you that the greatest possible care was taken to respect the sanctity of the mosque," he said.
Al-Janabi, the imam, denied the raid had netted much weaponry. "In every mosque in Iraq we keep light guns for self-protection," he said. "They claim it's an arsenal of weapons, but it's just for self-protection."
He said the raid showed US forces were persecuting Sunni Muslims, who were favoured under ousted President Saddam Hussein, and warned there would be repercussions. "The army of Sunnis will come back again," he said.