Muslim group condemns reports of U.S. rape AP July 2, 2006 BAGHDAD, Iraq - An influential Sunni Muslim organization Sunday strongly condemned reports that U.S. troops raped an Iraqi women then killed her and her family, saying it shows "the truth of the ugly American face." The Association of Muslim Scholars said that what U.S. troops have done by "raping this girl then mutilating her is shameful and will remain as a sign of shame to American invaders." U.S. investigators believe that American soldiers spent nearly a week plotting an attack in which they raped the Sunni Muslim woman, then killed her and her family in a religiously mixed area about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The Americans entered the home, separated three family members from the woman, then raped her and set fire to her body, a U.S. military official said Saturday on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The three others, apparently including a child, were also slain, another official said. The association said in its statement that it "condemns this ugly crime and declares to the whole world that this mean behavior and terrible violations committed by the invaders show the truth of the ugly American face and also shows that their claims of calling for humanity and liberation are not true." "We put the world and all humanitarian organizations as witnesses to this ugly crime and call them to face the American recklessness that went way too far," said the association, a strong critic of American presence in Iraq.

Did Suspected GIs Plan Rape-Slaying? July 1, 2006 CBS News Investigators Believe U.S. Soldiers Under Investigation Plotted Attack For Nearly A Week U.S. officials said they knew of the deaths but thought the victims died due to sectarian violence. But Mahmoudiya police Capt. Ihsan Abdul-Rahman said Iraqi officials received a report March 13 alleging that American soldiers had killed the family. (CBS/AP) Investigators believe the U.S. soldiers suspected of raping an Iraqi woman, then killing her and members of her family plotted the attack for nearly a week, a U.S. military official said Saturday. The official, who is close to the investigation, told The Associated Press that flammable liquid was used to burn the woman's body in a cover-up attempt, although it was not clear if it was gasoline or lighter fluid. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said it appeared the attack was "totally premeditated" and that the soldiers "studied them for about a week." According to the official, the Sunni Arab family had just moved into a new home in the insurgent-riddled area around Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad. The Americans entered the home, separated three males from the woman, then raped her and set fire to her body, the official said. The three males were also slain. U.S. officials said they knew of the deaths but thought the victims died due to sectarian violence. But Mahmoudiya police Capt. Ihsan Abdul-Rahman said Iraqi officials received a report March 13 alleging that American soldiers had killed the family. The incident occurred in the Khasir Abyad area, about 6 miles north of Mahmoudiya, he said. There were some discrepancies over how many soldiers were being investigated. The U.S. official said it was at least four. Two other U.S. officials said Friday that five were under investigation but one already had been discharged for unspecified charges unrelated to the killings and was believed to be in the United States. In Baghdad, the U.S. military issued a terse statement Friday, saying only that Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged slaying of a family of four in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. The four still in the Army have had their weapons taken away and are confined to a U.S. base near Mahmoudiya, officials said. If convicted of premeditated murder, the soldiers could receive a death sentence under U.S. military law. The suspects in the killing were from the same platoon as two soldiers kidnapped and killed south of Baghdad this month, another official close to the investigation said Friday. Their mutilated bodies were found June 19, three days after they were abducted by insurgents near Youssifiyah southwest of Baghdad. The military has said one and possibly both of the slain soldiers were tortured and beheaded. The official said the mutilation of the slain soldiers stirred feelings of guilt and led at least one member of the platoon to reveal the rape-slaying on June 22. One soldier was arrested after admitting his role in the alleged attack on the family, he said on condition of anonymity because the case is under way. The official said the rape and killings appear to have been a "crime of opportunity," noting that the soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols. One of the family members they allegedly killed was a child, said a senior Army official who also requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The senior official said the alleged incident was first revealed by a soldier during a routine counseling-type session. The official said that soldier did not witness the incident but heard about it. A second soldier, who also was not involved, said he overhead soldiers conspiring to commit the crimes and then later saw bloodstains on their clothes, the official said. The allegations of rape could generate a particularly strong backlash in Iraq, a conservative, strongly religious society in which many women will not even shake hands with men who are not close relatives. The case is among the most serious against U.S. soldiers allegedly involved in the deaths of Iraqi civilians. At least 14 U.S. troops have been convicted.

Flashback: US soldiers accused of sex assaults Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Tuesday March 8, 2005 The Guardian Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Brigade - the same military unit whose troops fired on the car carrying the freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena - were under investigation last year for raping Iraqi women, US army documents reveal. Four soldiers were alleged to have raped the two women while on guard duty in a Baghdad shopping precinct. A US army investigator interviewed several soldiers from the military unit, the 1-15th battalion of the 3rd Infantry Brigade - but did not locate or interview the Iraqi women involved - before shutting down the inquiry for lack of evidence. Transcripts of the investigation, obtained by the Guardian from the American Civil Liberties Union, show only the most cursory attempts by the investigator to establish whether the women were raped. The soldiers claimed the women were prostitutes, or denied any knowledge of any one in their unit having sex while deployed in Iraq. The statements went largely unchallenged. "I know the women were Iraqi. I however don't know if they were raped, or were prostitutes, or just wanted sex," one soldier told investigators. Jameel Jaffar, an attorney for the ACLU, which has led a long legal struggle for the Pentagon to release documents of its investigations, argues that the failure to conduct a thorough investigation on such serious charges as rape was part of a disturbing pattern. "There are always questions in these files about whether the investigator was sufficiently aggressive in pursuing leads and tracking down evidence," he said. The allegations of rape were contained in 1,200 pages of documents released yesterday by the ACLU. Together, the documents cover investigations into 13 cases of suspected abuse. However, no action was taken against any soldier as a result. The documents also provide further evidence that US troops have destroyed evidence of abuse, in order to avoid a repetition of last year's Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. In the latest such episode, an officer is believed to have destroyed a home-made DVD showing members of the Florida National Guard abusing Iraqi detainees, and manipulating the hand of a dead Iraqi to wave at the camera. Another scene shows a soldier hitting a bound prisoner on the head with a rifle butt. At least one of the soldiers - a sergeant - was identified from the DVD. However, no criminal charges were brought in that investigation after military lawyers concluded that the DVD showed "inappropriate rather than criminal behaviour". The DVD, which the soldiers called Ramadi Madness, was discovered by a civilian public affairs employee at the unit's headquarters in West Palm Beach, Florida. The DVD was later destroyed by an officer who had learned the case was under investigation. Mr Jaffer said: "We have to start to ask the question of whether there is a whole layer of abuse out there that we are not seeing because the evidence of abuse has been covered up." The investigation into the allegations of rape was launched last April after a report appeared in Playboy magazine alleging that the unit had engaged in various war crimes from rape to hogtieing and beating up an Iraqi detainee. By July 26, 2004, the inquiry was over. "Investigation established there was insufficient evidence to prove or disprove the allegations," the report concluded.

Flashback: U.S. Soldiers Accused Of Raping Iraqi Women Escape Prosecution Democracy Now Interview March 29 2005 On International Women's Day, Guardian reporter Suzanne Goldenberg broke the story about how soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Brigade accused of rape were able to escape the charges. The soldiers were from the same military unit whose troops fired on the car carrying freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena. [includes rush transcript] Suzanne Goldenberg's article appeared in the Guardian newspaper. It began: "Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Brigade -- the same military unit whose troops fired on the car carrying freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena -- were under investigation last year for raping Iraqi women, U.S. Army documents reveal. Four soldiers were alleged to have raped two women while on guard duty in a Baghdad shopping precinct. A U.S. Army investigator interviewed several soldiers from the military unit, the 1-15th battalion of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, but did not locate or interview the Iraqi women involved before shutting down the inquiry for lack of evidence. "Transcripts of the investigation, obtained by the Guardian from the American Civil Liberties Union, show only the most cursory attempts by the investigator to establish whether the women were raped. The soldiers claimed the women were prostitutes, or denied any knowledge of anyone in their unit having sex while deployed in Iraq. The statements went largely unchallenged. "I know the women were Iraqi. I however don't know if they were raped, or were prostitutes, or just wanted sex," one soldier told investigators. "Jameel Jaffar, an attorney for the ACLU, which has led a long legal struggle to get the Pentagon to release documents of its investigations, argues that the failure to conduct a thorough investigation on such serious charges as rape was part of a disturbing pattern. 'There are always questions in these files about whether the investigator was sufficiently aggressive in pursuing leads and tracking down evidence,' he said." We are joined by Suzanne Goldenberg in our D.C. studio.

Flashback: Rape of Iraqi girls by US mercenaries and soldiers was rampant in Baghdad May 6, 2004 La Voz de Aztlan One victim was a 9 year old girl who suffered permanent vaginal injuries Los Angeles, Alta California - (ACN) The recent apology by President George Bush to the Iraqi people is not sufficient to undo the horrible pillage and rape of Iraqi women and girls that took place during the early days of the US occupation of Baghdad. There is some evidence that the invading US forces were provided with amphetamines and pornographic materials to incite their thorough ravaging of Baghdad. Reports of sexual violence and abduction of women and girls abounded in Baghdad during the early days of the occupation reports that the US government chose to ignore. Human rights groups, medical practitioners, victims, and witnesses had documented many of the crimes. Human rights organizations were concerned that many other cases went unreported and uninvestigated because some of the Iraqi women and girls feared that reporting sexual violence and rapes would provoke "honor" killings and social stigmatization. A large number of the abductions and rapes were committed and filmed by hired mercenaries of the Pentagon and many of these photographs and videos wound up in for-pay pornographic websites based in the United States. One of these websites has shut down ever since La Voz de Aztlan made this information public. The website called "Iraq Babes", believed owned by Jewish pornographers, advertised it with the following banner: "Horny soldiers having extreme sex in war"! The website at http://www.iraqbabes.com/ has been shut down and presently only shows one web page with a stick drawing of a horse. The website showed photographs and videos of Iraqi women and girls being brutally raped. We hope the website has shut down permanently for it only reinforces the allegation that the USA is really "The Great Satan" Islam talks about. There are numerous cases of the brutal rape of Iraqi women and babies as young as nine years old. We are reporting the following two just as examples: Case 1: On May 22, 2003, in Baghdad, a nine-year-old girl was abducted from the stairs of the building where she lived, taken to an abandoned building nearby, and raped. A family friend who saw the young girl immediately following the rape informed international human rights groups. The report quotes the family friend, "She was sitting on the stairs, here, at 4:00 p.m. It seems to me that probably they hit her on the back of the head with a gun and then took her to [a neighboring] building. She came back fifteen minutes later, bleeding [from the vaginal area]. [She was still bleeding two days later, so] we took her to the hospital." A human rights group saw a copy of the medical report by the U.S. military doctor who treated the baby girl six days later. The report documented bruising in the vaginal area, a posterior vaginal tear, and a broken hymen. Lieutenant Monica Casmaer, a physician's assistant attached to a U.S. military unit, examined the nine year old girl. with the pediatrician. She described the injuries as fairly severe, especially given the time that had elapsed before she was examined. Case 2: A young Iraqi woman told an international human rights group that armed men abducted her from her home on a Thursday night in early May, 2003. She said her captors gang-raped her at an unknown location before dropping her in an unfamiliar district of Baghdad the following morning. The report of the woman says, "I was here, on the stairs by the door when a car pulled up with four men. My daughter was on the upper floor, I was on the ground floor. The four men got out of the car and approached me. They were armed, they put guns to my head and said come with us. I screamed and said take the pistol away. My daughter started to scream. They pulled my hair and pushed me in the car and they started shooting at the house, more than fifty shots. My daughter was screaming the whole time. Many neighbors started to shoot too, but they couldn't catch them". The victim added "In the car they made me put my head down between my legs, and put a pistol to my head. They said that if I moved my head I'd be killed, so I don't know where they took me.... [Then they took me into a building where] they were hitting me on the head and arms, and I still can't stretch out because my whole body hurts. They used hot water on my head, my eyes still burn from that and my arms. They raped me, in many, many ways. They kept me until the next day, I begged them, I said I have a young child, I said she might die if I leave her alone. And so then they left me alone. When I came home my appearance was so bad, my hair was a mess, my mouth was bloody and my legs too. They burned my legs with cigarettes. They bit me, on my shoulders and arms. All of them raped me, there were five or six more than the four who kidnapped me, there were ten of them total and I was raped by all ten of them. The most unconscionable aspect of these heinous rapes in Iraq is that many were filmed for the depraved enjoyment of perverts in the USA. Only a thorough Congressional investigation will begin the process of bringing the Pentagon rapists and sodomists to justice. Congress must investigate the connection between the rape of Iraqi women and girls and the Jewish pornographic industry in the USA. A thorough investigation might even save the lives of many American girls who are also being abducted and utilized for the same purpose. There are hundreds of underage girls that disappear in the USA yearly never to be seen again. Many of these young American girls lose their lives in the production of "kiddie porn snuff films".

Flashback: Army Condones Rape by US Soldiers in Iraq Afsc.org May 2004 According to investigative reports in The Denver Post, the US Army is routinely refusing to prosecute US soldiers in Iraq who are accused of rape. According to a report on January 25, 2004, "At least 37 female service members have sought sexual-trauma counseling and other assistance from civilian rape crisis organizations after returning from war duty in Iraq, Kuwait, and other overseas stations, The Denver Post has learned. The women, ranging from enlisted soldiers to officers, have reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling and incomplete criminal investigations by military officials. Some say they were threatened with punishment after reporting assaults." A follow-up report in The Denver Post on April 12, 2004, based on records from 41 closed rape investigations obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, found that the system of giving the power to decide whether to prosecute or not to the commanders of the accused, not to prosecutors, frequently resulted in terminated investigations, dropped charges, and light administrative punishments, even in cases with substantial evidence. The Post reported, "In the case of [a] sergeant accused of assaulting three battalion soldiers - two incidents occurring in shower stalls - he even admitted to the crimes, documents show. And despite a prosecutor's note that 'sufficient admissible evidence is available to prosecute the subject for the offenses,' the commander chose only to reprimand the sergeant. No explanation was given, a trend in all the cases." These cases indicate that mild administrative punishments are more the rule than the exception. Preceding the revelations in May 2004 about systematic abuse in the US administered prisons in Iraq, the Post reported that, "In one investigation, three Fort Bragg, NC, soldiers with the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion were accused of assaulting an Iraqi woman held in the Abu Ghraib prison. Although no details were provided, the report notes that the enlisted men were each fined at least $500 and demoted in rank."

Flashback: Iraqi Woman Recalls Abu Ghraib Rape Ordeal Ira Chernus July 21 2004 IslamOnline.net - The rape ordeal she suffered at the hands of US soldiers, both males and females, in the notorious Abu Gharib prison will continue to haunt Nadia for the rest of her life. Though freed now, she is "imprisoned" in painful memories that left her psychologically and physically scarred, paying the price of the brutality and sadism of her American jailers. Nadia, the name given by a freed Iraqi female prisoner to Al-Wasat, a weekly supplement of the respectable London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, felt it incumbent upon herself to speak out and expose the less-talked-about abuse of female prisoners in US-run detention camps across Iraq. Her visit to a relative ended up in her detention by American troops, who stormed the home under the preferable excuse of "searching for weapons". "I tried in vain to convince the impeded interpreter I was a guest, but I lost consciousness to find myself later in a dingy dark cell all by myself," Nadia recalled... With tears rolling down her cheeks, she told the paper how she was stripped by her "liberators" of the most precious thing an Arab and Muslim women can have: Her virginity. "A thrill of fear ran through me when I saw US soldiers laughing hysterically with a female solider telling me mockingly in an Arabic accent 'I never heard about female arms dealer in Iraq'," Nadia said. "As I tried hard to explain to her that I was wrongly rounded up, the female soldier started accosting and kicking me with my cries and pleas falling on dead ears." She went on: "She gave me a cup of water and no sooner had I started sipping it than I went into a deep trance to find myself later naked and raped." 'Like Animals' Only then Nadia realized that hard times and an uncertain fate were lying ahead. And days proved her right. The other day, five soldiers fondled and raped her one after another in a distasteful sex orgy on the tunes of culturally offensive heavy metal music. "One month later, a soldier showed up and told me in broken Arabic to take a shower. And before finishing my bath, he kicked the door open. I slapped him but he raped me like animals and called two of his colleagues, who forced me to have sex with them," added Nadia. "Four months later, the female soldier came along with four male soldiers with a digital camera. She stripped me naked and started fondling me as if she was a man while her male colleagues broke into laughter and started taking photos. "Reluctant as I was, she fired four shots close to my head and threatened to kill me if I resist. Then, four soldiers raped me sadistically and I lost conscience. Later, she forced me to watch a clip of my raping, saying bluntly: 'Your were born to give us pleasure'." Naida was set free from the US hell in Abu Gharib after spending up to six months there. The American soldiers dumped her along the highway of Abu Gharib and gave her a meager of 10,000 dinars to "start a new life". Too ashamed to return home, she now works as a housemaid for an Iraqi family. Britain's mass-circulation The Guardian revealed on May 12 that US soldiers in Iraq have sexually humiliated and abused several Iraqi female detainees in Abu Gharib. In its May 10-17 issue, the Newsweek said that yet-unreleased Abu Gharib abuse photos "include an American soldier having sex with a female Iraqi detainee and American soldiers watching Iraqis have sex with juveniles." The Iraqi abuse scandal exploded onto the world stage on April 29 after the CBS news network published several shocking photos of Iraqi detainees tortured and sexually abused by US soldiers. In a damning report presented to the administration in February, before the outbreak of the scandal, US Major General Antonio Taguba found numerous "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at the prison complex.

Flashback: Hersh: children raped at Abu Ghraib, Pentagon has videos Seymour Hersh New Yorker July 2004 BoingBoing.net Seymour Hersh speaking at an ACLU event said the US government has videotapes of children being raped at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out." Excerpt from statement provided by Abu Ghraib Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, Detainee #151108, on January 18 2004: "I saw [name deleted] fucking a kid, his age would be about 15 - 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard the screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn't covered and I saw [name deleted] who was wearing the military uniform putting his dick in the little kid's ass. I couldn't see the face of the kid because his face wasn't in front of the door. And the female soldier was taking pictures. [name deleted], I think he is [deleted] because of his accent, and he was not skinny or short, and he acted like a homosexual (gay). And that was in cell #23 as best as I remember." Link to pdf of testimony Another testimony alleging abuse of minors from a statement provided by Thaar Salman Dawod, Detainee #150427, on January 17, 2004: "I saw lots of people getting naked for a few days getting punished in the first days of Ramadan. They came with two boys naked and they were cuffed together face to face and Grainer was beating them and a group of guards were watching and taking pictures from top and bottom and there was three female soldiers laughing at the prisoners. The prisoners, two of them, were young. I don't know their names." Here's a update (sub required) on Capitol Hill plans for hearings on new (and as-yet unreleased) material documenting torture at Abu Ghraib. And there's this snip from a CBS interview with "leash girl" Pfc. Lynndie England, the guard seen grinning and pointing at Iraqi prisoners in the infamous photos: When England was asked if there were other things that happened at Abu Ghraib, things that were not photographed, she said, "Yes." When asked if there were worse things that happened, she said "Yes," but would not elaborate. Link to first PDF, Link to second PDF.

U.S. probes possible 'friendly fire' death By TINI TRAN Associated Press Sat Jul 1, 2006 KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military on Saturday said it was investigating the death of a soldier in eastern Afghanistan as a possible "friendly fire incident." The Defense Department said Pfc. Justin R. Davis, 19, of Gaithersburg, Md., died on June 25 in eastern Kunar province when he came in contact with indirect fire - a term used for mortar shelling - while on patrol during combat operations. "The circumstances of the soldier's death are under investigation as a possible friendly fire incident," the statement said. In Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition released a statement saying an investigation into the incident is under way. "We are looking into Pfc. Davis' death to determine what happened. No final determination has been made and we will not release any information relating to the investigation till it is complete," the statement said. Davis had been assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum, N.Y. His mother, Paula Davis, told The Frederick News Post that Davis "was passionate about joining the service. "He would always say, 'This is my dream. I am going to follow it,'" Paula Davis told the newspaper. "He died doing what he loved." Justin Davis had been in Afghanistan since March and had plans to come home for several weeks in August. "It was a calling," she said. "It was a life that fit him." Davis' body arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday, Paula Davis said. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors July 10. Coalition troops have been operating in eastern Afghanistan to battle insurgents active along the Pakistan border. According to U.S. Army data earlier this year, 17 soldiers have died from friendly fire in the past four years - 10 in Iraq and seven in Afghanistan. They occurred in 11 separate incidents. The most famous case was the 2004 death of former NFL player Pat Tillman, an Army Ranger and corporal, who died during a gunbattle near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. That case triggered a criminal investigation that is still pending.

Baghdad car bombing kills 66 in Shiite market by Ammar Karim AFP Sat Jul 1, 2006 BAGHDAD - At least 66 people have been killed by a car bomb in a busy Baghdad market in a Shiite district despite a massive security crackdown in the Iraqi capital. The second deadliest attack this year came a day after Al-Qaeda supremo Osama bin Laden vowed the war would go on in Iraq regardless of a peace plan launched by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. A Sunni woman MP was also kidnapped in north Baghdad Saturday along with eight of her bodyguards. The sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City, a stronghold of Mehdi Army militiamen loyal to radical leader Moqtada Sadr, has been a repeated target for Sunni Arab insurgents amid mounting sectarian violence. The massive bomb exploded as a police patrol passed through Al-Ula market which was packed with morning shoppers, an interior ministry official said Saturday. Deputy Health Minister Sabah al-Hussein said at least 66 people were killed and 98 wounded in the bombing. It was the deadliest attack since a suicide bomber killed 67 people and wounded 105 at a police recruitment centre in the insurgent bastion of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on January 5. "The explosion happened in a very crowded market frequented by many people even from outside the area," Hussein told state television. "At the beginning of this market, the criminal blew up his dynamite-packed truck after trying to go over the pavement." The market contains shops selling everything from bridal gowns to kitchenware. Many vendors also have stalls along the main market street and in packed alleyways selling fruits, vegetables and other goods. The force of the blast torched nearby stalls and around 20 vehicles. Fearful residents were seen desperately searching through the mangled wreckage for missing loved ones. A US military vehicle which attempted to approach the blast scene withdrew in a hail of stones thrown by angry residents. Major General Jihad Taher al-Luaibi, head of the interior ministry's anti-explosives unit, said: "The martyrs were of all sexes and ages -- innocent people. Their bones and flesh were crushed together. "The impact of the explosion scattered pieces everywhere, as far as 500 metres (yards) from the scene," he told state television. The body of one young girl was found on the roof of a nearby gymnasium. Stressing that the security forces had asked for new equipment to detect car bombs, Luaibi pleaded: "If the prime minister is listening, please approve our request because this will save human lives." An unknown Sunni insurgent group claimed responsbility for the attack. "Your mujahedeen brethren in 'the Supporters of the Sunni Community' decided to teach the Rawafidh (a derogatory term for Shiites) a lesson they will not forget as long as they are alive," said a statement on an Internet website usually used by insurgent groups. "A booby-trapped car loaded with a huge amount of highly explosive material was introduced today into the stronghold of the Mehdi Army in the so-called Sadr City, the fortified trench of the Rawafidh from which they launch the ugliest operations of treachery and killing against Sunnis," it said. The car was "detonated near a den where the Rawafidh meet and against patrols of the Mehdi Army disguised as police ... killing at least 100 Rafidhi, mostly from the Mehdi Army, and wounding more than 100 others." Following the attack Mehdi militiamen threatened to take over patrolling the district. "The Iraqi forces are not doing their job properly... they are not checking cars that are entering the area. If this is the case, we will take the security of the area into our own hands," Fuad, a Shiite militiaman who gave only one name told AFP. Hardline Shiite MP Sheikh Jalaleddin al-Saghir said after meeting revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the southern shrine city of Najaf that the bombing was "a conspiracy being hatched by outside enemies". Saghir has always accused neighbouring Sunni-dominated Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan of turning a blind eye to their extremists flocking to Iraq to attack Shiites. Riyadh al-Nuri, a senior aide to Sadr, blamed the attack on those who were part of the government but continued to "pander to terrorists" in a veiled reference to Sunni Arabs. Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party said: "We condemn the bombing in Sadr City and we hold the interior and defense ministers and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki responsible for an impotent security plan that is unable to prevent such attacks." Taiseer Najeh Awad al-Mashhadani, an MP from the National Concord Front, the largest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament, was seized in Baghdad, security sources said. Her abduction came after Maliki, a Shiite, launched a national reconcilation plan aimed at wooing members of the disenchanted Sunni community away from the protracted insurgency and back into the political process. The violence was a reminder of the precarious security situation in the capital despite a massive security clampdown that has seen over 60,000 US and government troops patrolling Baghdad streets in recent weeks. Elsewhere in Iraq eight people were killed and eight bodies were found. As part of Maliki's plan, 495 detainees were released Saturday, the seventh such batch to be freed since he first floated the idea of a partial amnesty on June 6. Maliki on Saturday reached Jeddah as part of his tour of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait to gain support for his peace plan. Meanwhile, US officials announced Friday that the military was probing allegations that at least two US soldiers raped an Iraqi woman and then murdered her and three family members.