Baghdad, Iraq - Shiite officials reacted angrily today to a clash that pitted American and Iraqi government forces against Shiite militiamen in Baghdad on Sunday night. Iraqi television Sunday showed bodies in what appeared to be a prayer room at a mosque in Baghdad.
Iraqi security officials Sunday night said that 17 people had been killed in a mosque, including its 80-year-old imam. The American military, which denied that American forces had entered the mosque, said Sunday night that 16 insurgents had been killed and 15 captured in a combat operation near the mosque against a terrorist cell.
But other Iraqi officials today put the death toll higher. Abdul al-Karim al-Enzi, the national security minister, said that 37 people were killed and charged that they were all unarmed. "Nobody fired a single shot" at the troops, Mr. al-Enzi told Reuters.
And Interior Minister Bayan Jabr called the incident "unjustified aggression against the faithful at prayer in a mosque," news services reported.
At a funeral procession today for victims of the clash, the mood was tense and members of the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, kept their weapons on prominent display. Shiite leaders demanded a full investigation of the incident, and the governor for Baghdad's provincial government, Hussein Al-Tahan, said today that he was suspending all cooperation with American forces until an investigation was completed.
Mr. Al-Tahan said at a press conference that he would start "restricted measures to protect the dignity of the Iraqi citizen."