At Least 42 Killed in Violence Across Iraq

The U.S. and Iraqi forces then "started shooting randomly at the people who were in the street," he said. "They shot at the mosque and the nearby shops."

The gate of the mosque was riddled with bullet holes, but it was not possible to independently confirm how or when it was damaged. The tall, spiraling minaret of the mosque was also pocked with bullet holes.

Crowds gathered in front of the mosque cursed what they called the "occupation" and the government.

"If the government cares about us, they should not send others to kill us," said Mohammed Sabah, 23, a high school teacher and resident of Sadr City.

In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad, Sayyid Riyadh Nouri, a senior aide to Sadr, said that the cleric had asked people not to retaliate. "Our leader, Sayyid Moqtada Sadr, ordered the people to be in the highest self-control and not to be engaged in any military fighting," he said.

Nouri called for immediate government intervention "to stop this crisis that will lead to the instability in the country."

Meanwhile, a U.S. soldier was killed Sunday when his vehicle rolled over during a patrol in western Iraq, the military said. Two other soldiers were injured in the accident in Trebil, near the border with Jordan, according to the Associated Press. No further details were available.

In Hilla, 55 miles south of Baghdad, five Iraqi civilians were killed and 49 were injured when a booby-trapped bicycle exploded in front of an ice-cream parlor and juice bar in the center of the city, said Capt. Muthanna Ahmed, a press officer at the Babil province police directorate. He said many of the injured were in critical condition.

At Hilla's General Hospital, Hadi Alwan, 36, who was among the injured, said the area was crowded with people when the explosion happened. "I did not remember anything, except my legs were bleeding and then I fainted," he said.

Maj. Gen. Qais Hamza, police chief for the province, ordered the hospital to prevent injured patients from leaving because police suspected that the bomber might be among them.

In Samarra, about 65 miles north of Baghdad, armed men shot and killed five Iraqi security guards employed by the Northern Oil Co., police Lt. Raed Mahdi said. In the same area, the bodies of three unidentified people who had been shot were found in the Tigris River, Mahdi said.

Iraqi and U.S. officials have warned of escalating violence before the Oct. 15 national referendum on a new constitution, an issue that has divided Sunni and Shiite Muslim political parties. The Shiites, who make up the vast majority of the population, largely support the constitution, which would give them a degree of autonomy under a new federalist system. The Sunnis, who lost political control after president Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003, have voiced opposition to the document. Sunnis make up about 20 percent of the population.

Thousands of people demonstrated against the constitution Sunday in Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad in the Sunni Triangle. The protesters -- students, religious leaders and government employees -- also denounced insurgents for threatening people who choose to go to the polls.

Special correspondent Saad Sarhan in Hilla and Salih Saif Aldin in Samarra contributed to this report.