US Targets Opposition Clerics in Mosul

The US military is acting to stem the rising tide of radical Islamism in Iraq's third largest city and rooting out preachers held to be using their sermons to incite attacks on Americans.

Alarmed by a surge of deadly attacks in Mosul, a Sunni Muslim stronghold of 1.7 million Arabs and Kurds, coalition forces are running what the US commander, Major General David H Petraeus, calls a "race to win over the hearts and minds of the people".

A team of US army chaplains is liaising with imams at the city's main mosques in an attempt to reassure the once dominant Sunni Arabs that they have not lost their stake in the new Iraq.

The attacks, the latest of which was on Sunday, when two American soldiers were shot dead and then mutilated, reveal a simmering resentment among sections of Mosul's Arab population - particularly the large number of unemployed and disaffected youth.

Lieutenant Colonel Chester Egert, chaplain with Gen Petraeus's 101st Airborne Division, coordinates the religious outreach programme. He said: "Since Saddam's departure and the removal of the Ba'ath leadership, many Sunnis in the city have turned to the mosques for guidance and support at a time of uncertainty.

"We have a great deal of cooperation and support from the most popular and respected imams in the city.

"They understand that we do not want to stay here a moment longer than necessary, and that we are here to help Iraqis through the hard times and emerge with freedom."

Sheikh Salih Khalil Hamoody, one of Mosul's senior clerics, welcomed the US attempt at bridge-building, but warned it was undermined by heavy-handedness over the city's worsening security.

"It could drive the youth into the arms of Saddam's loyalists and religious extremists," Sheikh Hamoody said. Sheikhs complained that US soldiers showed disrespect to ordinary Muslims at the growing number of checkpoints, he said. They also alleged that former Ba'athists, now working for the US-trained civil defence corps, were sent into mosques to spy on the imams' Friday sermons.

The US military believes some mosques are centres of resistance, used to store weapons and enlist recruits.

Over the last week, raids on at least 10 mosques resulted in the arrest of up to 100 people and the capture of weapons.

"The Ba'athists now wear the uniform of occupation," said Mohammed Fikri, a worshipper at the Haibat Khatoun mosque. "They are gaining their revenge on us for our disloyalty to Saddam by reporting lies to the Americans. What has changed?"

The US hearts and minds campaign will not be easy. A group of clerics in the city calling itself the Association of Muslim Scholars recently issued a warning against cooperating: "Beware of supporting the occupiers, and know that contacting them, without a legitimate necessity, is sinful."

"Some mosques in Mosul are outlets for anti-American rhetoric," said Col Egert. "We do monitor what the imams say, and, unlike under Saddam, they are free to say what they want - provided they don't preach violence." He said Iraqi authorities had so far removed one imam in Mosul for anti-US speeches.

The Iraqi Governing Council yesterday banned Al-Arabiya, one of the biggest Arab TV news networks, from Iraq for "a certain time" for broadcasting a tape a week ago of a voice it said was Saddam Hussein.