WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2004 -- Coalition Provisional Authority and military officials in Baghdad, Iraq, today showed reporters a video as proof that coalition and Iraqi security forces took extra care not to desecrate the holy site during a raid of a mosque Jan. 1.

Some media reported protests by angry Sunni Iraqis, who accused U.S. soldiers of ripping pages from the mosque's Quran during a New Year's Day raid at the Ibn Taymiyah mosque near the Iraqi capital. During the raid, coalition and Iraqi security forces uncovered a large cache of weapons and took 34 people into custody.

Coalition spokesman Dan Senor and Army Brig. Gen Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, told reporters the video gives "a better sense beyond words" of what happened during the raid.

The video shows coalition soldiers, as well as Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and Iraqi Security Forces, taking part in the raid. ICDC soldiers helped guard the suspects detained during the operation.

Kimmitt said the video also dispels claims that coalition soldiers mistreated the mosque's sheik. Kimmitt said the leader was treated just like the rest of the detainees and was not assaulted in any way. In fact, Kimmitt told reporters, the entire operation was a fairly calm. "Everybody was very compliant during the entire operation," he said, adding that no weapons were fired at or inside the mosque...