Senior Iraqi Politician Running Al Qaida Safe House?

This fresh from Radio Free Europe:

January 1, 2007 -- There are conflicting accounts of a U.S. military operation today in Iraq.


The U.S. military says its troops killed six "terrorists" during a raid on a possible safe house in Baghdad for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, after first coming under heavy fire themselves.

The building belongs to a leading Sunni Arab politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, who heads the National Dialogue Front. He called the raid a provocation.

In an interview with Reuters, Al-Mutlaq is quoted as saying a family of four was killed in an adjacent building during the raid, including two children, as well as two of his security guards.

A U.S. military spokesman told Reuters that he was unaware of civilians being injured or killed in the raid.

That's a pretty big difference of opinion. An Al Qaida safe house belonging to the leader of one of the Sunni minority's two largest political coalitions or the same house, same owner, packed with his own guards and the firefight spilling over next door with horrible consequences?

If Saleh al-Mutlaq, who was the head Sunni negotiator on the Iraqi constitution, was running an Al Qaida safe-house then that is massive news. Just as big as the arrests of the supposed Iranian gunrunning bigwigs on Christmas Day - they were arrested in the house of the head of the Iraqi parliament's security committee, on the compound of a major-time Shiite politico who has recently been jokeying to replace Prime Minister Maliki. They had been invited to Iraq by President Talibani and had an appointment later that day with Maliki himself.

Is every Iraqi politician in league with those killing American troops? If so, it's definitely time to leave.

Or maybe the Bush administration hawksjust decided to remind them all who is boss...

Update The Reuters version actually muddies the water even more. Which building was targeted?

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces said they were fired on from an office building belonging to a leading Sunni Arab politician during a raid on a suspected al Qaeda safehouse in Baghdad on Monday in which six insurgents were killed.

Saleh al-Mutlaq, an outspoken member of parliament whose Iraqi National Dialogue group is part of the U.S.-backed political process, said U.S. forces had targeted his office, killing two security guards and wounding two more.

Speaking to Reuters by telephone from outside Iraq, Mutlaq also said a family of four, including two children, were killed in an adjacent building during the raid on Monday.

He said the raid was a provocation and said the U.S.-backed government should be targeting Shi'ite militias blamed for operating death squads rather than his political party.

"Coalition forces killed six terrorists and detained one suspected terrorist during a fierce firefight Monday morning in Baghdad," a U.S. statement said.

"Intelligence reports indicated the targeted location was used as a possible safe house for al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists to conduct operational planning," it said, adding U.S. forces were fired on from several buildings nearby and that two buildings caught fire because of the intense firefight.

"One of the buildings from which Coalition Forces received heavy enemy fire, including grenade launches, was later identified as belonging to Dr. Saleh al-Mutlaq," it said.

So, was the building that US forces say they targeted the same one as Mutlaq says they targeted? Who shot at who first, US troops or Mutlaq's guards?

And you've just gotta love the milspeak in the U.S. statement. Notice that it's a "possible safe house". Notice, too, that the dead in this "possible safe house" are very definitely "terrorists" (doesn't that make it a definite safe house, at least until it became very unsafe?) while the detained man is a "suspected terrorist". If the detained man is found "innocent" will the dead still be "terrorists" or will they become "suspected" too? Or might they be "innocent"? How are we to know which story is true?

Dead men don't tell tales.