US armoured vehicles sealed off a large mosque in south-western Baghdad Thursday in an operation to arrest a leading Sunni Muslim cleric, witnesses said.
Imam Mahdi Ahmed Saleh al-Sumaydah was detained along with more than a dozen worshippers and staff of the Ibn Taimiya mosque in the Yarmuk district of the capital, they said.
The US military was unable to immediately confirm the operation, said to have begun at around 7:30 am (0430 GMT), but under normal practices they do not enter mosques unless under fire or accompanied by Iraqi liaisons.
"American tanks and armoured personnel carriers forced their way through the front gate of the mosque, while helicopters flew overhead," said one worshipper, who requested not to be named.
He said troops damaged property after they entered the 35-year-old holy building.
"They went directly into the mosque, violating its sanctity. It is forbidden to do that because they are not Muslims," he added.
Although the mangled front gate of the mosque appeared to have been freshly torn from its hinges, it was not possible to verify claims of internal damage to the building.
Other worshippers said the raid had taken place because Sumaydah was wrongly suspected of fuelling insurgency in Iraq linked to tensions between Shiite Muslims and minority Sunnis, from whose ranks former president Saddam Hussein hails.
Last September, Sumaydah united some 100 clerics under an umbrella organisation to promote Islamic preaching.
The following month the group mobilised 500 Sunnis outside the headquarters of coalition authorities in Baghdad to demand the departure of US troops from Iraq and the release of detained religious dignitaries.
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