US marines and Iraqi forces kicked off pre-dawn raids on at least seven mosques in the rebel-bastion of Ramadi, prompting firefights in the city that left two Iraqis dead.
The influential Sunni Muslim Committe of Muslim Scholars, which represents around 3,000 mosques across Iraq, accused the Americans and Iraqis of arresting their representative for Al-Anbar province, Sheikh Abdul al-Aleem al-Sadi, along with his son, Osama.
The organisation, the pre-eminent Sunni Muslim voice in Iraq, said the troops had raided 30 mosques across Ramadi, but the marines had no immediate confirmation.
"Iraqi security forces, supported by marines and soldiers from the 1st Marine Division, began a series of raids on seven mosques in Ramadi today," the military said in statement.
The mosques were suspected of "harboring known terrorists, storing illegal weapons caches, promoting violence against the Iraqi people and encouraging insurgent recruitment," the military said Tuesday.
As marines and Iraqi forces combed the city, they exchanged fire with rebels, leaving two Iraqis dead and five wounded, hospital sources told AFP.
Iraqi forces conducted the mosque sweeps.
The Iraqi and US forces launched their dragnet at 4:00 am (0100 GMT), hours after marines took fire from a mosque in the nearby town of Hit and called in an air strikes on the building.
Two Iraqis were killed and 30 wounded in the fighting in Hit. The military accuses insurgents of relying on mosques' protected status to shield them from US raids.
In a separate statement, the marines listed incidents this month where insurgents exploited mosques as bases for attacks.
On October 8, the marines in Ramadi observed insurgents explode the city's Red Crescent Society building and run into a mosque and on October 4, an Iraqi national guard compound was hit by rocket or mortar fire from a mosque in Karmah outside of Fallujah.
Ramadi, the scene of daily battle between insurgents and marines, is the capital of western Al-Anbar province, home to Fallujah, where the Sunni Muslim rebellion against the US presence in Iraq is at its most intense.