Contradictory reports on US raid on Diyala persist (3rd Lead)

Oct 5, 2007, 11:57 GMT

Baghdad - Contradictory accounts persisted Friday about adawn US raid on a village near Baquba which media reports said killed at least 25 civilians and wounded 40 others, while the US claimed the target was against people involved in criminal activity.

Both Iraqiya State TV and independent Sharkiya TV reported that at least 25 civilians were killed and 40 others injured when US planes attacked the village of Gezani al-Imam north-west of Baquba.

A further media outlet, the Al-Forat TV, which is the voice of the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, reported that over 30 civilians were killed and 50 others were wounded in the operation.

The number of casualties is most likely to increase as many bodies had yet to be recovered from the civilian houses destroyed during the attack, a police source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

The victims, the source added, included women and children.

US helicopters fired a number of missiles against houses in the village at dawn, local residents said.

But according to a statement by the US military, coalition forces targeted a special groups commander believed to be associated with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard - Quds Force - in the dawn operation.

Intelligence had indicated he was involved in criminal activity and in helping the movement of various weapons from Iran to the Iraqi capital, the statement added.

Coalition forces had come under heavy fire from armed men when they entered the targeted area and returned fire, the US military said. Coalition forces then called in air support in the gunbattle.

Pan-Arab al-Arabiya news broadcaster had earlier said that the armed men were not likely to be terrorists and that they were carrying weapons to protect themselves from militants who are spreading through the city.

Diyala has become one of the most dangerous regions in recent months in Iraq, with members of the al-Qaeda terror network streaming into the region from other areas of the country.

Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, is 60 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Meanwhile, eight al-Qaeda terrorist network militants were killed and 28 others were detained in an Iraqi security raid south-east of Samarra city in Salahaddin province, a provisional police source said Friday.

Among the killed was the Saudi Abu Obada who was the leader of al- Qaeda north Tigris area and Ali Youssif al-Jabouri, the Mufti of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaeda affiliate, Major Ahmed Sobhi from anti-terrorism unit in Salahaddin police command said.

Al-Jabouri was responsible for a fatwa (a binding religious opinion) that stipulates the killing of at least 100 residents of Duluiyah for resisting al-Qaeda militants.

Three security personnel were killed and nine others wounded in the clashes erupting between the forces and the militants.

The security forces, meanwhile, confiscated large amounts of weapons, rockets, explosive belts and vehicles. They also freed a number of hostages.

In another development, the US army reported that a US soldier was killed Thursday south of Baghdad.

In other news, VOI reported that two Shiite clerics had been found murdered in their homes over the past two days in the predominantly Shiite city of Basra.

One of the victims taught at a religious school and the other at an Islamic university, the report said.

The latest murders follow on events in September, when several representatives of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the supreme spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiites, were murdered in Basra.

The murders triggered speculation that they were not carried out by Sunnis, but rather by rival Shiite groups, possibly supported by Iran.