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Iraqi soldiers take positions outside Najaf. (AP Photo). Click photo to view. |
Iraqi led operation results in over 300 deaths of enemy fighters
Iraqi Security Forces, backed by American tanks and air support, attacked what appears to be a mixed group of Sunni insurgents and a Shia end-times cult known as the “Soldiers of Heaven.” The battle occurred in the suburbs and orchards north of Najaf. “Police Colonel Ali Nomas said 250 militants had been killed,” reported Reuters. “The political source said up to 1,000 had been involved. An army source said they wore camouflage and appeared well organised.” They were also believed to have possessed anti-arircraft missiles.
Later counts put the number of enemy fighters killed at up to 350, with a minimal loss to Iraqi and U.S. troops. Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and 21 wounded, five police were killed and 19 wounded, and two U.S. soldiers were killed when their helicopter was downed. The leader of the Shia cult, Ahmed Hassani al-Yemeni “who claimed to be the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure in Islam,” was killed during the fighting, which lasted over 24 hours. The Iraqi Army fought what appears to be a well armed, well trained and organized force on its own turf, and deal the enemy serious casualties, while beheading the leadership.
Early reports indicated there were both Sunni terrorists and Shia cultist involved in the fighting. “Governor Asaad Abu Gilel as saying that the militants, who included foreign fighters, had arrived in the city disguised as pilgrims in recent days and based themselves in the orchards, which he said had been bought three or four months ago by supporters of Saddam Hussain.”
An American military intelligence informed us the early indications are that the Omar Brigade, al Qaeda in Iraq’s unit designated to slaughter Shia, was involved in the fighting. al Qaeda in Iraq would have a vested interest in causing mass casualties of Shia during the pilgrimage to Karbala for the festival of Ashura. Over 11,000 Iraqi Army and police have been deployed to Karbala to provide security for the event.
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reports “one possibility is that the men belong to an al Qaeda-affiliated group. If so, they could have been in the vicinity of the Shi’ite holy city of Al-Najaf to launch attacks during celebrations of the Ashura festival… another possibility is that the U.S. and Iraqi troops were fighting a new, messianic Shi’ite militia called the Army of Heaven.”
“It is a new militia emerging from [other Shiite] militias,” Mustafa Alani says. “You have the Badr militia, you have the Al-Mahdi Army, and you have an [armed] group which belongs to the Al-Dawa party. Now, apparently, if this [theory] is true, we have another, fourth militia emerging now — a [new] Shi’ite militia.”
The U.S. military has yet to release an official statement on the fighting outside Najaf. Based on the reporting and information from multiple media, U.S.and Iraqi sources, the likelihood is the enemy composition consisted of a mix of the Shia Army of Heaven cult and al Qaeda in Iraq fighters from the Omar Brigade. Cooperation between Shia and Sunni insurgent groups is not a new development in Iraq, as Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army and al_Qaeda cooperated during the Fallujah/Najaf uprisings in the spring and summer of 2004. Shia Iran has been supplying the Sunni insurgency, al Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunnah with weapons and bomb making materials, and is currently sheltering senior al Qaeda leaders within its borders.
As the fighting raged in Karbala, Iran announced it was shutting down the border crossings into Iraq, obstensively to “prevent a large number of pilgrims from flocking across the border without ‘legal documents.'” There is no evidence the Iranians have played a role in the uprising in Najaf. The recent assault on the Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, where 5 U.S. soldiers were killed, including four kidnapped and later executed, by what is believed to be the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Qods Force, has raised tensions between Iran and the United States.
26 Comments
This is another indicaton that the ISF is making good progress.
Trackbacked by The Thunder Run – Web Reconnaissance for 01/29/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
How much credence should we put in the body count figure given by Reuters’s “political source”? Do we have a confirmation from US forces?
Relax eLarson,
All statistics were confirmed by Jamil Hussein, the AP incarnation of various Iraqis, Kurds, Turks, Sunnis, Shia, etc.
Let us know how the details fill in, for now this seems to be an outlier group with uncertain affiliation. The other possibility is that the group was cobbled together for this specific plot. A major question is: Does this group have any real history, or did it just materialize for a plot. That could tell us something about it’s nature. I’m also curious about the nature of the Shiite – Sunni collaboration, if there is any.
I hope that rest of Ashura comes off without too much violence. That would be an accomplishment for the IA. The IA now needs to show that it is the big dog in the neighborhood and is in the process of taking charge.
I can’t help to notice that this latest incident is happening right under Sadr’s nose. It could be completely fortuitous; I don’t think Sadr is involved. It does put on a nice show for Sadr’s people: This could be you! I’m quite happy that Sadr’s people are going to ground, that is if we remain aggressive and take advantage of it. That’s the key, the IA needs to be aggressive now and take charge. They don’t need to take care of the insurgency problem overnight, but they do need to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with.
It appears to be a collaboration between Al Quaeda and an amateur apocalyptic Shia cult: Why would that happen?
The best reason I can think of is AQ is employing useful idiots as a diversion for something else, perhaps a ‘normal’ but bigger hit on the Shia pilgrimage, or maybe something political. At any rate, I’d keep my head on a swivel out there right now.
Neo asked “A major question is: Does this group have any real history, or did it just materialize for a plot.”
I assume its the latter because they vaporize as fast as they materialize. The virgins are busy today!
Another set of false body counts
just like Vietnam
“oh Lookie we just killed a million vc, we won the war!
Let me see if I can summarize. The IA and IP:
-detected the insugents before they were ready
-planned and executed a large attack
-killed hundreds while losing few of their own
-killed the leader.
-protected a large number of innocent people for wholesale murder.
Wow. Talk about outstanding perfromance and a “best possible” outcome.
Iran indicted
The Bush Administration is about to release evidence of Iranian involvement in destabilizing Iraq New evidence of Iran’s role in Iraq will be made in Baghdad by the chief spokesman for the multinational forces in Iraq, Major General William Caldwell.
‘iraqthemodel’ sees it different
Iraq the model’s post was at least a half day earlier than this one. Everything isn’t clear even now. We may all see this differently once it has all washed through.
Iraqis Kill 200 Shiite Terrorists
You have to read deep into to the story to begin to realize why this is so important: these are Shi’ite terrorists. Yeah, some Iraqi spokesman is keen to say that there were Sunnis in the terrorist death cult as…
I believe I could use a scorecard.
Intense Iraq Fighting: 250 Insurgents Killed in Major Battle in Najaf
Iraqi police commandos flash the victory sign as they return from a raging battle which pitted yesterday gunmen against Iraqi security forces near the holy Shiite city of Najaf. At least 200 Shiite zealots, including a cult leader claiming…
“Another set of false body counts just like Vietnam
‘oh Lookie we just killed a million vc, we won the war!'”
Spoken like a true parrot head. Repeating brain-dead slogans and making spurious comparisons only shows that your analysis is utterly superficial.
Polly want a cracker! Braaaaawk!
Sectarian cooperation
In the debates over Iraq, we often hear the canard that Sunni and Shia Muslims are irrevocable enemies who would never cooperate with each other. Yet the evidence that they have and still do is pretty solid, as Iraq freelance…
NBC is really playing this incident up, as if a major new (terrorist) player has made an appearance. More impending doom. Well yes, I hope no one causes a major blowup during the Ashura festivities but this is group is no major new player.
They are also indicating that they are well trained. I think I’ll wait before drawing any such conclusion.
Pardon me for asking but if I were the Revolutionary Guards, and I wanted to hide my cooperation with Al Qaeda in Iraq, it might not be a bad idea to develop a stooge force like the Soldiers of Heaven: cannon fodder to give the wider Iraqi audiences the impression that the Sunnis and Shi’a are cooperating against the Crusading Infidel.
These guys came out of nowhere. My bet is that they were an artificial creation of Iranian intelligence. The presence of the Omar Brigade in the vicinity makes me doubly suspicious that this was the case.
Iraqi Army battles Shia cult, Sunni insurgents in Najaf
Courtesy of The Fourth Rail:
Iraqi led operation results in over 300 deaths of enemy fighters
Iraqi security forces, backed by American tanks and air support, attacked what appears to be a mixed group of Sunni insurgents and a Shia end-times cult kn…
Anyone catch MSNBC today? They were talking about the the huge number of insurgents we killed and the headline on the screen was “Civil War?”. Am I the only one not connecting the dots? That’s like saying California is headed towards a civil war because the LAPD arrested 100 gang members.
Actually, I’m not sure if I saw that on MSNBC or CNN. Either way, both channels are clueless.
This will become more clear in the next few days. What is clear now is that the Iraqis can and will fight and win against the terrorist gangs.
With proper motivation.
What concerns me is how well this “cult” was armed. The Iraqis were obviously better trained and had our cover in the battle. The Somalia model works.
Bill,
Ahmed Hassani al-Yemeni’s Cult is not a new group. They have been around for a long time. Just because Western media totally suck and fail to report on them; it does not mean our military is not aware of them.
I knew of them when I was in Iraq back in 2004. Everyone in the South (if not all of Iraq) knew of them. It was not a secret. Ahmed Hassani is considered by most Shiites to be a heretic. It is a blaspheme to porclaim oneself a Mahdi.
http://counterpunch.org/patrick01312007.html
A picture is beginning to emerge of a clash between an Iraqi Shia tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint that led the US to intervene with devastating effect. The involvement of Ahmed al-Hassani (also known as Abu Kamar), who believed himself to be the coming Mahdi, or Messiah, appears to have been accidental.
http://counterpunch.org/patrick01312007.html
A picture is beginning to emerge of a clash between an Iraqi Shia tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint that led the US to intervene with devastating effect. The involvement of Ahmed al-Hassani (also known as Abu Kamar), who believed himself to be the coming Mahdi, or Messiah, appears to have been accidental.
Posted by jon
You cant take this seriously I hope?