From the Wiki:
Minarets (Arabic manara منارة, but more usually مئذنة) are distinctive architectural features of Islamic mosques. Minarets are generally tall, graceful spires, with onion-shaped crowns, usually either free standing or much taller than any surrounding support structure.
From General Peter Pace, military genius:
In Baghdad, Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish political leaders resumed negotiations on forming a new government Tuesday, a day after the talks were interrupted by Shiites’ outcry over a U.S.-Iraqi raid Sunday on what the U.S. military said was an armed faction and what the Shiites said were Shiite men at prayer in a mosque.
In Washington, top Pentagon officials said Tuesday that Sunday’s raid did not mark the start of a broader crackdown on Shiite militias and said U.S. troops were unaware until after breaching the compound that it contained a place of worship.
At a Pentagon briefing, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the raid targeted a kidnapping ring. He said an Iraqi counterterrorism unit and its U.S. Special Forces advisers discovered an Iraqi hostage and numerous weapons inside the compound, as well as a small minaret and prayer room. U.S. forces “did not know that that minaret was there on the way in,” Pace said.
You can’t make this shit up. Of all the things I hate about the Bush administration, it is the way they constantly insult my intelligence that I take the most personally.