The ever-tightening noose in Iraq...
The Mosque formerly known as um-al QuraIraqi government soldiers shut down the Baghdad headquarters of one of the most powerful Sunni Muslim groups in Iraq on Wednesday cordoning off the building and accusing the group of supporting al-Qaeda, officials said.Soldiers moved into the Um al-Qura mosque in a Sunni district of western Baghdad where the Committee of Muslim Scholars is based and ordered the occupants out, according to a statement on the group's website. The committee, which is said to be close to the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq, is headed by cleric Harith al-Dhari, one of the most important Sunni Muslim religious figures in Iraq who currently lives in exile in Jordan.
The association has long opposed the U.S. military presence in Iraq and has often been at odds with the Shiite-backed government. It spearheaded the Sunni boycott of the January 2005 elections, which fueled the insurgencyAccording to the association, the soldiers were acting on the orders of Ahmad Abdel Rafur Sammarrai, who runs a government agency charged with managing Sunni mosques and other religious sites. The raid is yet another sign of the growing battle for influence between the Committee of Muslim Scholars and rival Sunni groups, some of which have joined U.S. forces in the fight against Al-Qaeda.
The association has long opposed the U.S. military presence in Iraq and has often been at odds with the Shiite-backed government. It spearheaded the Sunni boycott of the January 2005 elections, which fueled the insurgencyAccording to the association, the soldiers were acting on the orders of Ahmad Abdel Rafur Sammarrai, who runs a government agency charged with managing Sunni mosques and other religious sites. The raid is yet another sign of the growing battle for influence between the Committee of Muslim Scholars and rival Sunni groups, some of which have joined U.S. forces in the fight against Al-Qaeda.
|