Iraqi police found 30 corpses, most beheaded, near a village north of the capital Sunday night, in the latest wave of sectarian killings engulfing Iraq. At least 16 people were killed during a clash involving U.S. forces at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad.

Relatives carry the casket of an Iraqi boy for burial, in Basra, southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, March 26, 2006. The 13-year-old Iraqi boy on his way to school was killed by a roadside bomb. [AP]

Elsewhere in the capital, American troops raided an Interior Ministry building on Sunday and briefly detained about 10 Iraqi policemen after discovering 17 Sudanese prisoners in the facility, Iraqi authorities said.

The short-lived raid was reminiscent of a U.S. raid last November that found detainees apparently tortured, but in this case the Americans quickly determined the Sudanese were being legitimately held and had not been abused, said Maj. Gen. Ali Ghalib, a deputy interior minister. The U.S. military command here had no immediate comment on the report.

The fighting at the mosque erupted hours after a mortar round slammed to earth near radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's home in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. The popular anti-American cleric was home but was not hurt, an aide said.

The incidents also came a day after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad spoke out on the need to cap the sectarian, militia-inspired killing, saying "More Iraqis are dying today from the militia violence than from the terrorists." He did not say which militias he meant nor did he define who the terrorists were.

Police said the bodies were found north of Baghdad after police and soldiers were dispatched to respond to a report of killings in Mullah Eid, a village near the town of Buhriz, a former stronghold of ex-President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party about 35 miles north of Baghdad.

Authorities gave no immediate information on the identities of the victims or on who may have been responsible. The dead were transferred to a morgue in Baghdad, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.

Radical Shiites, meanwhile, said 18 people were killed by U.S. and Iraqi forces at a mosque in eastern Baghdad. Police said 22 died, while the American military said 16 "insurgents" were killed by Iraqi special forces with U.S. troops on the scene as backup.

"No mosques were entered or damaged during this operation," the military said in a statement at least five hours after the clash.

"As elements of the 1st Iraqi Special Operations Forces Brigade entered their objective, they came under fire. In the ensuing exchange of fire...(Iraqi troops) killed 16 insurgents. As they secured their objective, they detained 15 more individuals," the military statement said.

A child and at least one guard were wounded in the mortar attack earlier Sunday that hit some 165 feet from al-Sadr's home, according to police and al-Sadr aide Sheik Sahib al-Amiri.

Iraqi troops sealed the area and the cleric's Mahdi Army militia surrounded the home after the attack, al-Amiri said. Al-Sadr lives near the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, about 90 miles south of Baghdad.

Shortly after the attack, the cleric issued a statement calling for calm.

"I call upon all brothers to stay calm, and I call upon Iraqi army to protect the pilgrims as the Nawasib (militants) are aiming to attack Shiites everyday," he said ahead of Wednesday's commemoration marking the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

Najaf police chief called the assault a "cowardly attack" by those still loyal to Saddam Hussein aimed at dividing the Iraqi people.

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