U.S. Officials Defend Raid Following Shiite Backlash

Accounts of Deadly Attack Diverge Sharply

Men mourn a relative who was one of 16 Iraqis killed Sunday in a raid by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad. Shiite Muslim leaders say a mosque was targeted. (By Alaa Al-marjani -- Associated Press)

BAGHDAD, March 27 -- Facing a scathing backlash from Shiite Muslim leaders a day after a deadly U.S.-Iraqi raid in Baghdad, U.S. military officials defended the mission Monday, saying it was a "hugely successful" operation against an insurgent hideout packed with weapons used against soldiers and civilians.

Along with two top generals, Lt. Col. Sean Swindell, whose unit participated in the raid, said the mission was led by Iraqi soldiers and targeted an insurgent group based at a compound in northern Baghdad. Sixteen Iraqis were killed, all combatants, U.S. officials have said.

Their version of events differed sharply from that of Shiite officials and Baghdad residents near the site of the raid, who for a second day voiced anger over the operation, saying U.S. and Iraqi troops targeted a Shiite mosque and gunned down innocent worshipers in the half-light of evening prayers.

"There was no resistance at all from the mosque. There were no weapons during prayers," said Muhammad Ridha, 39, who works at the complex in Baghdad's Shaab neighborhood. "The purpose of the raid was to kill Shiites."

The rejection of such characterizations by Swindell, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, and other U.S. officers came in a series of television appearances and late-night conversations with reporters aimed at bolstering the U.S. version of events. American officials had been essentially silent about the raid for more than 24 hours, limiting their response to two written statements and a handful of photographs e-mailed to reporters.

Their comments also came as the American presence in Iraq -- long hailed, or at least tolerated, by Iraqi Shiites as a bulwark against factional violence -- faced its most precarious moment in months, according to U.S. diplomats and military officers, political analysts and Iraqi officials.

On Monday, political leaders canceled a round of negotiations over the formation of a new government and instead huddled with American diplomats in an attempt to rein in the burgeoning crisis. Meanwhile, the Shiite-led provincial government in Baghdad suspended all cooperation with U.S.-led forces until an investigation into the Sunday raid is conducted.

The rancorous standoff coincided with yet another devastating day of violence, with as many as 60 people killed across Iraq, including dozens of military recruits in a bombing in the northern city of Mosul.

"I certainly don't see any easy way out of this mess," said Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. diplomat who serves as a consultant to Iraq's Kurdish parties.

Further complicating U.S. efforts is the fact that those killed Sunday are believed to have been followers of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Once a renegade distrusted by the Iraqi government, Sadr has spent the past year cementing his status as a political insider, incorporating members of his Mahdi Army militia into the Iraqi police force. More than 30 of his followers won seats in the new parliament.

"I was more surprised that the U.S. took on the Mahdi militia as it did," said Michael O'Hanlon, an analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "We handled Sadr's forces very well in 2004 with a mix of carrots and sticks, and we have to be prepared to fight him again, but any time you fight him or someone associated with him, you run the risk of taking on all his legions, and that would be a huge negative."

While the enmity between U.S. and Shiite leaders may have peaked as a result of the raid, relations have been souring for the past several months. In late December, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad -- long praised as an evenhanded broker by all of Iraq's factions -- began warning political leaders forming a new government to put the security apparatus outside the control of Shiite militia leaders.