U.S. forces detain 6 Iranian envoys

BAGHDAD —  Iraqi Kurds, among America’s staunchest supporters, condemned the detention early Thursday of six Iranian diplomats during a raid by U.S. forces on the Iranian Consulate in the Kurdish city of Irbil.

The Kurdish president and the regional government released a statement calling for the release of the six. The U.S. military said one of the diplomats was freed.

“The U.S. action does not conform to the policy of attempting to spread security and stability throughout all of Iraq,” the Kurdish statement said, adding that the raid was conducted without local approval.

“The people of the Kurdistan region protest against and reject this action, which violates our internal sovereignty,” the statement said. “We do not accept that disputes with our neighboring countries should be brought onto our soil.”

The U.S. operation follows detention of Iranian diplomats three weeks ago during raids in Baghdad. The Bush administration has accused Iran of arming and supporting Shiite Muslim militias and meddling in Iraq’s affairs.

In his speech Wednesday night, Bush promised that troops would “interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria” and “destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.”

The raid occurred before Bush’s address.

The language of his speech contrasts with a call by the Iraq Study Group to open negotiations with Iran and Syria.

On Thursday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh urged the United States to repair relations with Iran and Syria, saying “we pay the price for the tension.”

In comments unrelated to Thursday’s raid, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was “instructive” that previous raids against arms suppliers had resulted in the detention of Iranians.

“So it is clear that the Iranians are complicit in providing weapons, and it’s also clear that we will do all we need to do to defend our troops in Iraq by going after the entire network, regardless of where those people come from,” Pace said in Washington.

Startled Irbil residents said they saw U.S. troops drop from helicopters onto the Iranian Consulate in the center of town about 4 a.m.

The firefight that ensued on a residential street jolted residents in a city largely spared from the daily bloodshed of Baghdad, about 220 miles to the south.

Hogher Mahmoud, 30, who runs a dairy shop in Irbil, woke to the sound of aircraft and gunfire.

“We were shocked this morning,” Mahmoud said. “It has been awhile since we heard shooting and violence in our streets.”

The U.S. military acknowledged in a statement that troops had detained six people suspected in attacks on Iraqi and U.S. forces. But the statement said the six were taken “without incident,” and did not specify their nationalities or where they had been detained.

“The coalition will continue to work with the government of Iraq to prevent interference by hostile actors in Iraq’s internal security affairs,” the statement said.

Ali Saeed, a lawyer and civil rights activist, said the timing of the raid was troubling, just as Bush was promising more troops and security in Iraq.

“I understand the new strategy that Bush announced, but I think it was a bad start,” Saeed said. “There was no respect for our authorities here. And the Iranian policy is not made here.... I am afraid this will spark a fire in this calm, secure region.”

Mohammed Ali Hosseini, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, told a state-sponsored radio station in Iran that U.S. forces had targeted a “diplomatic mission” and staff members with legal credentials. He accused the United States of trying to “create tension” between Iraq and its neighbors.

In Tehran, the Iranian government summoned the ambassadors of Iraq and Switzerland to explain the incident, state-run television reported. The United States has no embassy in Tehran; the Swiss diplomatic mission represents U.S. interests.

Elsewhere in Iraq, U.S. troops clashed with insurgents in and around Baghdad, and police reported finding 37 bodies in the capital during a 24-hour period ending Thursday.

Insurgents could be seen trading mortar fire with U.S. troops in Dora, a neighborhood in south Baghdad.

U.S. and Iraqi Interior Ministry forces raided three homes in Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, detaining five men, witnesses said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces were still securing Haifa Street in the capital, the scene of an offensive Tuesday that killed at least 51 insurgents.

Five Iraqi police officers heading home for the weekend were killed by gunmen in the mostly Sunni Khadra neighborhood in north Baghdad, police said.

Eight high-ranking Oil Ministry officials were kidnapped on their way to work in the capital by men in Iraqi police uniforms, police reports said. The men, who arrived in two police cars, seized the ministry’s bus, separated Sunni officials from Shiites, beat the Shiites, then released them before leaving with their Sunni co-workers, saying, “You will see the bodies of these four at the garbage dump by tomorrow.”

In the northern city of Samarra, a suicide bomber tried to drive a truck into the house of the city council chief, but was stopped by barricades. The explosion destroyed five homes and killed three people, police said.

molly.hennessy-fiske

@latimes.com

Times staff writers Raheem Salman, Suhail Ahmad and Saif Hameed in Baghdad, and correspondents in Baghdad, Irbil and Samarra contributed to this report.