Iraqi interior minister calls joint US-Iraqi raid 'unjustified'

By Agence France Presse

03/27/06 "AFP" -- -- BAGHDAD - Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh on Monday described as "unjustified" the night time raid carried out by Iraqi special forces on a Shiite mosque that left at least 16 people dead.

"It was an unjustified aggression against the faithful at prayer in a mosque," he told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel about the special forces raid that took place late Sunday.

"The operation was not under the control of the police but by the army and the police were not authorized to enter the area," he added, confirming that Iraqi special forces under control of the defense ministry and based near the Baghdad airport took part.

Police and Iraqi television originally blamed US forces for the bloody operation while the US military countered saying it was an Iraqi operation targeting an insurgent cell.

"There was shooting which provoked a panic," said Solagh, adding that the Iraqi army and coalition forces should open an inquiry into the raid. "The ball is in their court," he said.

According to the US military, no mosque was touched in the attack and in addition to discovering large numbers of weapons, an Iraqi hostage taken the day before and tortured for the past 12 hours was also freed.

Solagh also addressed reports that US forces had raided a secret ministry detention center where 17 foreigners were being held.

"I met with my assistants and I learned that 17 Sudanese and one Egyptian who did not have legal residence, were in this place," he said.

"The law allows them to be detained and the director of immigration did not want them mixed with dangerous terrorists and for that reason they were all placed in a ministry building devoted to engineering services."

"These individuals should be deported in the coming days and they confirmed they were well treated," said the minister, adding that a delegation from the coalition forces visited him and congratulated him on "the respect for human rights and the law by agents of the ministry of interior."

Since November, US soldiers have discovered two detention facilities run by the interior ministry where detainees were badly treated. The minister, however, has played down these incidents.

His ministry is suspected of having been infiltrated by members of the Badr Corps, a Shiite militia belonging to Solagh's political party the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

In other remarks, the minister maintained that Iraq's general security situation was under control and one could not speak about civil war in Iraq.

"I told a delegation of US senators that they could withdraw their forces at the end of the year because the ministries of Interior and Defense have enough forces to control the situation," said Solagh.

© 2006 Agence France Presse.