This post is from April 2004. Facts and links may have changed since. See more from that month

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CENTCOM: No Damage to the Mosque

CENTCOM is saying they didn’t actually hit the mosque:

To gain access to the compound housing the mosque, the release continued, the Marines used air support to breach a wall several hundred yards away from the actual mosque structure. One anti-coalition force member was killed in the attack, and there were no reports of civilian casualties, the CENTCOM release said.

The anti-coalition forces firing from the mosque violated the law of war by conducting offensive military operations from a protected structure, the news release said. Though the mosque lost its protected status and became a lawful military target, the Marines still targeted only the wall surrounding the compound to prevent damage to the mosque, the release emphasized. Marines on the ground saw no damage to the mosque after the strike, CENTCOM reported.

If it is true, someone back at HQ should have gotten in front of the news story.

Jeffrey Lewis

Writing on ACW 2004–2026

Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is the founding publisher of Arms Control Wonk.com. He is the Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His also a non-resident affiliate at Stanford's Center for Security and International Cooperation and a Contributing Editor to Survival.

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