From: evleth@wanadoo.fr   
      
   I see the US is out their wining more hearts and minds.   
      
   Fortunately, Rumsfeld says there is not real resistance and not   
   to worry.  This is not quagmire time again!   
      
   Earl   
      
   *****   
      
      
   Explosion at Mosque Kills Five Iraqis   
      
      
   By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer   
      
   FALLUJAH, Iraq - A massive explosion in a mosque killed at least five Iraqis   
   and injured four others in this restive town, witnesses and officials said   
   Tuesday. The blast raised tensions in a region already simmering with   
   anti-American activity.   
      
   Iraqi civilians said the explosion late Monday in Fallujah was caused by a   
   missile or bomb strike, but American soldiers at the scene disputed that   
   account, saying it was likely caused when explosives hidden at the site went   
   off.   
      
   In Baghdad, assailants traveling in a vehicle in the central Mustansiryah   
   neighborhood fired a rocket propelled-grenade at a U.S. military vehicle   
   Tuesday, destroying it and likely causing casualties, Iraqi witnesses said.   
      
   One witness, 19-year-old Ali Ibrahim Shakir, said he saw two U.S. soldiers   
   being evacuated on stretchers. He said he could not tell if the soldiers had   
   been hurt or killed. Witnesses viewed the rescue process from at least 100   
   yards away because they said they feared further explosions from a nearby   
   gas station.   
      
   A Mercedes traveling alongside the U.S. vehicle was also hit, wounding the   
   Iraqi civilian who was driving it, said witness Mohammed Abdullah. After the   
   attack Tuesday morning, three U.S. helicopters hovered over the site.   
      
   Military spokesmen in Baghdad said they had no information on the attack,   
   and it was not clear if any U.S. personnel were killed or wounded.   
      
   A huge explosion over the weekend at an ammunitions depot killed at least   
   three people and injured four in Hadithah, 150 miles northwest of Baghdad,   
   according to initial reports from the U.S. military. It was not immediately   
   clear who the ammunition belonged to or what caused the explosion.   
      
   In Fallujah, witnesses said the blast took place just before 11 p.m. Monday   
   in a small cinderblock building in the courtyard of the al-Hassan mosque.   
   The explosion blew out the walls and took down the roof of the structure.   
      
   Hours after the explosion, dozens of people gathered around the destroyed   
   mosque shouting anti-American slogans amid the rubble.   
      
   "There is no God but Allah, America is the enemy of God," they chanted, as a   
   crane lifted large pieces of concrete from the site. An witness said that   
   after the evening prayer, he heard aircraft hovering overhead and then heard   
   the sound of the explosion.   
      
   On Tuesday morning about a dozen Iraqis remained, sifting through the rubble   
   for pieces of metal they said proved the damage was caused by an American   
   attack.   
      
   "These are pieces of a missile," said Aqeel Ibrahim Ali, 26, who was   
   standing on a concrete slab overlooking the destruction, holding out a box   
   filled with metal shards. "An airplane shot a missile."   
      
   But Sgt. Thomas McMurtry, a reservist with the 346th Tactical Psychological   
   Operations Company, said there was no evidence the explosion was caused by a   
   U.S. attack.   
      
   "They did it to themselves. Clearly, the physical evidence does not support   
   that (a missile strike) in any way," he told The Associated Press. "Whatever   
   blew up was just sitting inside there. There is no evidence that it was   
   anything else but a ground based explosive."   
      
   McMurtry, a schoolteacher based in Dayton, Ohio who said he is a former   
   special forces engineer with munitions training, said that if the explosion   
   had been caused by a bomb or missile, there would be evidence of shrapnel.   
   He said U.S. army ordnance disposal personnel had scanned the wreckage and   
   saw no sign of a missile strike.   
      
   The U.S. military headquarters in Baghdad said it had no information on the   
   incident.   
      
   It was unclear who the Iraqi victims were, or what they were doing at the   
   mosque late Monday.   
      
       
      
   Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, has been a hotbed of anti-American   
   activity and scene of several confrontations between U.S. troops and   
   insurgents. U.S. soldiers shot and killed 20 protesters in April, provoking   
   widespread resentment.   
      
   Just Monday, a van pulled up to a U.S. observation post in the town and   
   fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Bradley fighting vehicle, but didn't   
   cause any injuries, the military said. Soldiers returned fire and killed one   
   man in the van.   
      
   Despite the unrest, tribal elders in the city insist that the people want to   
   cooperate with U.S. occupation authorities.   
      
   On Tuesday, a U.S. sweep to snuff out remaining pockets of anti-occupation   
   resistance in the so-called "Sunni triangle" north and east of Baghdad,   
   entered its third day.   
      
   Troops detained a colonel from Saddam's Baath Party along with five other   
   individuals, a military statement said Monday, without providing details.   
   The statement said at least 319 Iraqis have been detained in several   
   operations, though none of Iraq ( news -web sites )'s most wanted fugitives   
   are believed to be among them.   
      
   U.S. troops have been increasingly targeted in recent weeks, raising fears   
   that their mission will become mired by a guerrilla-style insurgency. At   
   least 20 American and six British troops have been killed by hostile fire   
   since President Bush ( news -web sites ) declared the end of major combat in   
   Iraq on May 1. There have been no reports of U.S. casualties since the sweep   
   began, the military said.   
      
   In other news, American troops moved in force to arrest the U.S.-appointed   
   mayor of the southern town of Najaf, 110 miles southwest of Baghdad,   
   removing him on kidnapping and corruption charges and detaining 62 of his   
   aides ‹ a step likely to please Najaf's Shiite residents.   
      
   The arrest came less than three months after the mayor, Abu Haydar Abdul   
   Mun'im, was installed by American troops after they entered the town in   
   April. The former Iraqi army colonel was unpopular from the start because of   
   his background in Saddam Hussein ( news -web sites )'s military.   
      
   Abdul Mun'im was replaced by Haydar Mahdi Mattar al Mayali, a former deputy   
   in the mayor's office.   
      
   Southern Iraq, dominated by Shiite Muslims who largely hated Saddam, has   
   seen less violence in recent weeks ‹ though many Shiites have rankled at   
   U.S. domination.   
      
   One of the country's top Shiite clerics, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a   
   fatwa, or religious ruling, this week, denouncing U.S. administrators' plans   
   to appoint a council to draw up a new constitution and demanding elections   
   so Iraqis can elect their own constitutional convention.   
      
   Al-Sistani, one of Iraq's most influential people, has been largely   
   supportive of American interests since Saddam's ouster.   
      
   Al-Sistani and another senior Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)