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Police accused of killing 12 Sunnis in mosqueReuters/AFPJun. 05, 2006 |
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 IRAQI police have been accused of killing 12 worshippers in a Sunni mosque, but the police say they were returning fire against gunmen. A police source said yesterday they received a tip that "terrorists" had taken refuge inside Al-Arab Mosque in the southern city of Basra and were fired on when they surrounded it on Saturday night. They said nine gunmen were killed and six arrested. The violence came hours after a car bomb killed 28 people in Basra and 19 Iraqis were killed by gunmen stopping minibuses on a highway and shooting the occupants, northeast of Baghdad. The killings challenge a state of emergency imposed by new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki aimed at cracking down on gangs, militias and feuding Shi'ite factions threatening oil exports. Sunnis often accuse Shi'ite militias of infiltrating Iraqi police units and of carrying out killings against members of Iraq's once-dominant minority. "We accuse the security forces (police) in Basra for what happened," the Sunni Endowment religious group said in a statement. "Only worshippers were killed in the mosque," it said. "They killed unarmed people inside the mosque." But a police source rejected this account, saying police were fired at when they came to the mosque in the centre of the southern city. "We got information that terrorists were inside the mosque and when we got there they fired at us and we responded," the source said. - Reuters/AFP |
