Iraq raid photos show weapons caches -U S senator

WASHINGTON, Mar 28 (Reuters) The Pentagon has photographs that show Iraqi and U S forces were fired on from buildings filled with weapons in an operation that has generated controversy after Shi'ite accounts of a mosque massacre, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, said today.

Accusations of a U.S.-led massacre of unarmed worshipers on the weekend have prompted the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government to demand that U.S. forces give up control of security.

U S commanders in Iraq have accused Shi'ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage such accusations.

The U S military has said that the raid on Sunday in Baghdad was by about 50 Iraqi special forces troops backed by about 25 American ''advisers.'' Warner, after a briefing on Iraq at the White House, said the strike was conducted largely by Iraqi forces supported by American forces, and they were fired upon from surrounding buildings.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld showed photographs taken immediately after the raid, ''and clearly you can see all types of armament and other military paraphernalia there,'' Warner, a Virginia Republican, said.

''I think the sooner those pictures are out, the sooner we can dispel that there was any wrong attack by our forces on a mosque or other buildings,'' he said.

U S commanders say bodies of gunmen killed fighting Iraqi troops in an office compound, not a mosque, were moved.

Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who also attended the White House meeting, said after his weekend visit to Iraq he does not believe there is a civil war, but that U.S. troops should not withdraw at this time.

''I think the biggest mistake we could make is having a calendar dictate the troop strengths over there,'' he said to reporters at the White House, echoing President George W.Bush's repeated assertion.

''I am confident that we can, and will, and must win because the consequences of failure are catastrophic,'' McCain said.

Bush's public approval ratings have dipped to the lowest of his presidency amid growing concern over the three-year-old Iraq war.

The president has insisted that there can be no timetable for withdrawing U S troops from Iraq, beyond planning to reduce numbers as Iraqi forces take over security in the country.

REUTERS PDS RN0130