At least 69 Iraqis die in Sunday violence

U.S. envoy speaks out
The raid in Baghdad came a day after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad spoke out on the need to cap the sectarian, militia-inspired killing, saying “More Iraqis are dying today from the militia violence than from the terrorists.” He did not say which militias he meant nor did he define who the terrorists were.

The two major militia forces in the country are Shiite organizations — the Mahdi Army of al-Sadr and the Badr Brigades, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Both have ties with Iran.

Hours before the raid in Baghdad near Sadr City, al-Sadr personally was the apparent target of a mortar attack at his home in the holy city of Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad.

At least one mortar round struck within yards of al-Sadr’s home, wounding a guard and a passing child, said Sheik Sahib al-Amiri, an aide to the cleric.

Shortly after the attack, al-Sadr issued a statement calling for calm.

“I call upon all brothers to stay calm and I call upon the Iraqi army to protect the pilgrims as the Nawasib (militants) are aiming to attack Shiites every day,” he said, referring to Wednesday’s commemoration marking the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

Al-Jaafari expresses concern
After the raid, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, expressed concern and telephoned Iraqi military leaders and U.S. Gen. George Casey to “discuss the situation,” said spokesman Abdul Rezzaq Al-Kadhimi.

Karim Kadim / AP An Iraqi boy and relative clean the debris of his damaged house on Sunday after a bomb explosion, in Baghdad.

He said the prime minister promised government compensation for families of those killed in the raid and called for Iraqis to be patient until an investigation was completed.

Police Lt. Hassan Hmoud, who put the death toll at 22, said some of the casualties were at the Islamic Dawa Party-Iraq Organization office near the mosque. The incident started when U.S. forces came under fire from the direction of the mosque and the party office, he said. The party is a separate organization from the one headed by al-Jaafari.

Shiite legislator and party spokesman, Khudayer al-Khuzai, said 15 members of the party were holding a “cultural meeting” in an office near the Shiite mosque. “They have nothing to do with the acts of violence,” he said.

Al-Khuzai claimed that after coming under attack, U.S. forces raided the party office, “tortured” the men, dragged them out and “executed” them. He said it was not clear who attacked the U.S. troops.

‘Iraqi blood is not cheap’
The main Shiite political bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, would demand a quick investigation “because the Iraqi blood is not cheap,” al-Khuzai said.

Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman, denied that the troops targeted a party office.

“The building was not a party headquarters but a community meeting room, and there was substantial intelligence on this building showing that that was not, in fact, what it was used for,” he said.

In the north of the country, the Kurdish writer Kamal Karim was handed an 18-month sentence for articles on a Kurdish Web site that accused Masoud Barazani, one of the region’s top leaders, of corruption.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, said the U.S. could withdraw a significant number of troops from Iraq this year if Iraqi forces are able to assume greater control of the country’s security.

Rice, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” noted that Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, “has talked about a significant reduction of American forces over the next year. And that significant reduction is because Iraqi forces are taking and holding territory now.”

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