The current governor of Baghdad (the previous one was assassinated) and interior minister Jabr may have a lot to gain by deflecting attention away from the current negotiations, which stand to cost them power. Especially Jabr, who is also suspected of serious abuses of his office. The governor also blamed "Zionists" for the earlier mosque bombing.

If the results weren't so serious, I'd be amused at the ease with which our media is duped.

It has been standard policy for well over a year for our troops not to enter mosques, but send Iraqi troops instead. This has been widely reported.

The insurgency and terrorists have routinely useds mosques for attacks and storage of ammunition and other military supplies. This has also been widely reported.

Note that the statements of Sadr and others like him are taken as seriously in this story as the statements of our own military.

Video taken of U.S. cartridges laying on the floor? Are they kidding?

An Iraqi blogger comments on a TV report he heard:

Al-Iraqiya TV just aired some images from the husseiniya. 17 'guards' were killed. One of the corpses carried a Da'wa party (Iraq organisation) ID, and another carried an ID issued by the Islamic Conference of Iraqi Tribes.

Someone in the background was asking the cameraman to film grenades lying around the corpses, to which the cameraman responded: "I can't show our guys' grenades."

"No, these are American grenades," the man in the background explained.

"Oh, okay I'll film them."

Al-Iraqiya TV was very critical of the attack, and is describing those killed as martyrs.

Unexploded American grenades are often found scattered around the bodies of the enemy after a battle. I guess our troops keep forgetting to pull those pins.