By Jonathan Finer and Bassam Sebti
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 17, 2005; A12
BAGHDAD, May 16 -- The Iraqi government said Monday that its soldiers would no longer raid mosques in their fight against insurgents, ending a practice that Sunni Arab leaders had long opposed on grounds that it provoked sectarian strife. Later in the day, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari met with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most influential spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, and said afterward that their discussion included "participation of Sunnis in the political process." The conciliatory gestures by the Shiite-led government came as a wave of attacks and execution-style killings continued. A rocket attack Monday at a Baghdad university killed four engineering students, and authorities discovered the bodies of 13 more people who had been slain in Baghdad, according to the Defense Ministry, bringing the total of bodies found to about 50 in the past two days. A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in the northern town of Rabia, killing five people and wounding more than 30, Police Lt. Miteb Ibrahim said. The attack occurred Monday at around 5 p.m. near the Syrian border, and most victims were immigration office employees or travelers waiting to have their passports stamped. In Baghdad, two car bombs at a market exploded in quick succession, killing nine soldiers and a civilian, the Associated Press reported. The second blast targeted soldiers who had rushed in to help the victims of the first. During a visit to Iraq on Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the government to try to bridge sectarian divisions by incorporating more Sunni Arabs into the government. The minority group is underrepresented in the National Assembly because Sunnis largely boycotted Iraq's Jan. 30 elections. At a news conference in Baghdad, Defense Minister Sadoun Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab, said he had "received many complaints from citizens . . . about random raids and arrest campaigns" conducted by Iraqi forces. From now on, he said, "it is strictly prohibited that any employee of the Defense Ministry raid worship places." Responding to another frequent Sunni complaint, Dulaimi said he would work to see that people detained by government forces were processed more quickly and released if no ties to terrorism were found. U.S. and Iraqi officials say they believe that the insurgency, which has taken more than 430 lives since Iraq's cabinet was formed late last month, is made up largely of Iraqi Sunnis and Arab fighters from other countries. Sunni leaders have expressed outrage in recent weeks over a spate of raids on their mosques and political organizations. The National Dialogue Council, a Sunni political group whose negotiations with Jafari helped bring several Sunnis into his cabinet, has been raided three times this month, its members say, though it is unclear who was responsible. Last week, Iraqi security forces raided Baghdad's Mukhtar mosque, detaining its preacher, Sheik Abdul-Karim. On Monday, Sunni leaders welcomed the government's new policy, though some did so cautiously. "This is a proper decision that came at the right time. The armed forces shouldn't enter mosques or worship places and disrespect them," said Naseer Ani, head of the political office for the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni political party. "This decision will help to calm the situation down in the country and decrease violence. It will give the Iraqis the chance to trust and respect their armed forces" Sheik Omar Dulaimi , a member of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars and a preacher at a Sunni mosque in Baghdad, said, "We'll wait to see if this will be effective in reality." If the change is implemented, he added, it "would lead to less violence." The new policy could pose a problem for U.S. forces, who in recent clashes with insurgents have relied upon Iraqi troops to enter mosques, believing their presence to be less offensive to worshipers. Insurgents sometimes take shelter in houses of worship. Shiites have also rebelled against foreign troops and their Iraqi allies. On Monday, the leader of a Shiite militia that battled U.S. forces for days last August in the city of Najaf spoke up after a long silence, saying the presence of U.S. troops was the cause of growing conflict among Iraqis. "I don't demand to put a deadline on the withdrawal of occupation forces, I demand their immediate withdrawal from Iraq," the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr told followers gathered at his home in Najaf. "The occupier is trying to create a strife among people. I hope to reconcile Sunnis and Shiites. They are one." On Monday, the Iraqi military announced it had apprehended a "very close confidant" of the Jordanian insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi. Salim Youssef Khafif Hussein, said to be an expert at making car bombs, was arrested in Mosul on Friday, the military said. The Defense Ministry announced that an Iraqi general, whom it did not name, survived an assassination attempt as he drove to work on Monday morning. As a car pulled alongside his vehicle, his guards returned fire, killing four attackers, the ministry said, adding that an arsenal of rockets, grenades and rifles was found in the car. Meanwhile, Dulaimi, the defense minister, reported that 13 bodies were found in the Shaab neighborhood of Baghdad, part of a recent pattern of mass slayings. At about 11:15 a.m., a rocket struck a residential building at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University. Three engineering students were killed, witnesses said. A fourth died later at a hospital. Ten were wounded. The rocket exploded as students were in a leafy courtyard preparing for final exams. Fadhir Abbas, an engineering professor who lives in the building that was hit, said one of the students killed had come to him shortly before the attack to ask how he had scored on a preliminary exam. "I told him, 'Wait till you see the results, but if I were you I would celebrate,' " Abbas said. Addressing a journalist, Abbas said: "Don't say we lost three students. We lost three engineers. They were going to rebuild this country." At the scene, notebooks and school papers were soaked in blood. Special correspondents Naseer Nouri, Omar Fekeiki and Khalid Saffar in Baghdad and Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.