Meanwhile conflicting reports are coming out of Baghdad over a U.S.-backed raid killed around 17 supporters of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Iraqi police said U.S. troops raided a Shiite mosque. One eyewitness said, “American and Iraqi forces came after prayers with some other people and opened fire. Local residents came to the mosque when they saw what was happening. Around 17 people were dead”. The dead included the mosque’s 80-year-old imam. The U.S. military has said none of its troops entered the mosque but admitted that U.S. special forces troops were at the scene advising Iraqi troops. Earlier in the day a mortar shell nearly hit Moqtada al Sadr’s home in the southern holy city of Najaf.