Normalcy In Iraq Equates to Insanity of Late

BAGHDAD (ABC/AP) March 26 — Police found 30 corpses, most beheaded, near a village north of the capital Sunday night, in the latest wave of sectarian killings engulfing Iraq. At least 16 people were killed during a clash involving U.S. forces at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad.

BAGHDAD, Iraq Mar 27, 2006 (AP)– A suicide bomber attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi military base in northern Iraq, killing at least 15 people and wounding as many as 30, the Iraqi military said.

The attack was reported shortly after noon at an Iraqi army recruiting center in front of the base, which is about 18 miles east of Tal Afar, the ancient city that President Bush singled out in a recent speech as a success story for American and Iraqi forces in the drive to quell the insurgency.

At Least 40 Dead in US-Iraq Base Blast

  Al Jazeera Report

At least 40 people have been killed by a car bomb inside a military base housing US and Iraqi forces near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

At least 16 people have been killed in a raid on a mosque in Baghdad where militants loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr were based, reports say. Aides to Mr Sadr say US forces led the raid on a mosque, while the US says Iraqi troops ran it with US support.

“No mosques were entered or damaged during this operation,” the US military said in a statement.

In a second raid, US troops arrested more than 40 Interior Ministry staff said to be guarding a secret prison.

‘Unarmed’

In Baghdad, an aide to Mr Sadr accused the US of killing unarmed people at the mosque.

“The American forces went into Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers,” Hazim al-Araji told Reuters news agency.

But the US military statement denied that any troops had entered the mosque and said the US special forces troops were on hand only as advisers to the Iraqi troops. According to US spokesman Barry Johnstone, it was a joint operation with Iraqi Special Forces. The troops entered a community center with mosque affiliation where terrorists operated with a weapons cache found inside the building.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) March 27 — Baghdad provincial governor Hussein al-Tahan said today he would suspend all cooperation with U.S. forces until an independent investigation is launched into the killing of 20 Shi’ites in a mosque.