Iraq

U.S. attacks mosque as Sadr deal emerges

KARBALA, Iraq - The U.S. military attacked a mosque in this holy city late Tuesday in its largest assault yet against the forces of the young rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, even as the first signs emerged of a peaceful resolution to the five-week-long standoff with him.

The strike on the Mukhaiyam Mosque brought hundreds of U.S. soldiers and their armored vehicles to within a third of a mile of two of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, the ornate shrines of the martyrs Hussein and Abbas. A building behind the mosque was fired on, detonating a huge weapons cache, and soldiers stormed the mosque, chasing insurgents out into a hotel and alley. The number of casualties could not be immediately determined.

Until now, U.S. forces had kept out of Karbala and nearby Najaf, another holy city, fearing they would further inflame Iraqi fury against the occupying forces, now fevered because of widely distributed photographs of American personnel abusing Iraqi prisoners.

But before the attack, Col. Peter Mansoor, commander of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, said military officers had met with Karbala's leaders and believed they would support the operation because they want his Mahdi Army run out of town. On Tuesday, several hundred Iraqis marched in Najaf to demand that he and his militia leave.

The attack came as news emerged that Adnan al-Zorfi, the U.S.-appointed governor in Najaf, had offered to delay attempts to capture Sadr if he agreed to disband his militia, which seized Najaf and Karbala last month.

The offer, Zorfi said, was made after extensive consultations with U.S. authorities, suggesting that U.S. leaders are reconsidering their stated goal of "killing or capturing" Sadr.

WASHINGTON - For the first time, Americans appear to be evenly divided as to whether President Bush or Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry would better handle Iraq.

A CNN-USA Today poll released Tuesday found that 48 percent of adults surveyed thought the president would better handle "the situation in Iraq," compared with 45 percent for Kerry.

People had strongly favored Bush over Kerry on the Iraq question in previous months. As recently as March, 54 percent of those polled thought Bush would do a better job of handling Iraq; 39 percent said Kerry.

Asked whether "it was worth going to war in Iraq," 44 percent of those surveyed said yes and 54 percent said no, the first time that a majority of those polled said war in Iraq was not worth it.

NEW YORK - A video that shows a young American soldier saying "who cares?" about Iraqi prisoners who died will air at 8 tonight on 60 Minutes II.

The CBS newsmagazine obtained the video diary of a soldier, whose name was withheld, talking about conditions at Camp Bucca and Abu Ghraib in Iraq, where Iraqi prisoners were held.

"VIGILANTE JUSTICE': A female sergeant in the Army's 320th Military Police Battalion took "vigilante justice" on Iraqi prisoners who she believed had raped Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, according to a letter from the battalion's commander obtained by the Associated Press. The soldier denied there was any abuse.

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