Posted on 01/30/2007 5:03:20 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BAGHDAD, Jan. 30 -- A series of separate bomb and gun attacks killed dozens of Shiite worshippers in Iraq on Tuesday, a day after Iraqi and U.S. forces disrupted what they said was a major plot to target Shiite pilgrims and leaders as they mark the high point of their religious calendar.
None of the attacks occurred in the city of Karbala, the scene of annual Ashura celebrations that draw hundreds of thousands of Shiite worshippers to the country. But in other towns, outside the focus of heightened security, worshippers were targeted as they commemorated the death 1,400 years ago of the prophet Muhammad's grandson, a central figure in the divide between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
The deadliest attack came at a Shiite mosque in Balad Ruz in the Diyala province of eastern Iraq. A suicide bomber walked through the main gate of Ali al-Akbar mosque and blew himself up, killing at least 17 people and wounding 57 others, according to Ali al-Khaiyam, a spokesman for the Diyala police. Another police official in Baghdad put the death toll at 27, along with 53 people injured.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Better than thousands as in previous years.
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Iraqi and U.S. forces teamed on Sunday to break up a Shiite-led cult that had planned to launch attacks during the celebration.
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The cult leader, who claimed to be a revered Muslim figure who vanished in the 10th century, was killed Sunday along with scores of fighters who were poised to attack the holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq and assassinate the country's Shiite religious leadership, Iraqi officials said Monday.
Information about the scope of the fighters' encampment and their aspirations emerged as Iraqi and U.S. troops inspected the rural battleground and hauled out those captured and killed during the day-long siege that began Sunday.
The discovery of a heavily armed Shiite-led cult, intent on attacking venerated Shiite symbols and leaders, startled Iraqi security officials who were already contending with rival religious factions battling for supremacy in the country.
"This is a new step in the annals of terrorism," Iraq's minister of national security, Shirwan al-Wahli, said in an interview. Wahli said the fighters were led by a man known as the Judge of Heaven, who claimed to be a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali. Wahli said the man also declared himself the Mahdi, the reappearance of the 12th imam, or leader of the faithful, who many Shiites believe vanished in the 10th century and whose return will mark an era of redemption and peace.
The cult leader killed Sunday probably sought to assassinate conservative Shiite religious leaders because they likely would have disputed his claim to be the Mahdi, said John O. Voll, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University, in a telephone interview.
The most recent comparable event occurred in 1979 in Saudi Arabia, Voll said, when a man claiming to be the Mahdi took over the holy sanctuary in Mecca. He and his followers were killed.
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Wahli said the cult leader came from southern Iraq and had written a book laying out his "supernatural, unbelievable" ideas. Over a matter of months, he recruited the estimated 700 people, known as the Soldiers of Heaven, who lived in tents and huts on farmland near Zarqaa, about eight miles northeast of Najaf, Wahli said.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said the man's name was Samer Abu Kamar, but other Iraqi officials assigned him different names.
Not quite the homecoming he expected, I imagine....
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Wahli said the structure of the group was Shiite, but it involved Sunni fighters and "based on the level of training, support and financing, it obviously has received support from outside Iraq."
Baathists and al-Queda........according some in the Blogosphere........
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"The aggressive manner in which the Iraqi soldiers performed north of [Najaf] going after the anti-Iraqi forces was impressive," said Col. Michael Garrett, commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, in the statement.
During a news conference in Najaf, the deputy provincial governor, Abdul Hussein Abtan, said the fighters were able to amass the vehicles and weaponry under the pretext that they were moving building materials destined for the Najaf airport, which is under construction. He said the group surged in numbers over the past 10 days in preparation for attacks on pilgrims, shrines in Najaf and clerics on the last day of Ashura. Among the fighters captured or killed were two Egyptians, a Lebanese and a Sudanese, he said.
"There were extensive preparations, they were highly trained, and they fought in an orderly way," said Wahli. "Their leader kept insisting through a loudspeaker that they keep fighting, despite repeated attempts by the Iraqi security forces to get them to stop."
They keep showing these victims, who are victims no doubt. Meanwhile, though, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of pilgrims pass through safely and all events go on as planned. It's like a bus overturns on the way to the Superbowl. All the networks devote sole broadcast space to the bus, and zip to the Superbowl.
I still believe that this is one of the great things about setting up a democracy in a culture with Islamic subtexts like Iraq. Islamic radicals like this one permeate much of the Islamic world. In other states, these maniacs are dealt with "quietly." This allows the Islamic world to save face.
These public attacks in the name of Islam create an insufferable paradox for observers. How can muslims kill muslims? Skeptics of any stripe prosper from this paradox. Muslims have no practical alternative but to moderate.
I suspect their are many more waves of this maniacal nonsense to be endured in Iraq, but I still believe they serve our long term strategic interests by turning observing publics against such Islamic practice. Secular politics gains adherents.
The risk of Iraq becoming an Iran seems to diminish daily with every absurd performance of these fanatics. I suspect this is a factor in why Sadr is deciding to take three or four steps back from confronting the Coalition.
Suits their purposes....they are not interested in the good news.....ever....it seems.
Unexpected Iraq bloodbath raises concerns (Shiite on Shiite violence as if it's new)
Wonderful. Khe Sanh, anyone? We beat the c@@p out of a whole NVA corps, and we're 'barely hanging on.' Or something to that effect. That's what this sounds like.
Now who supposedly purchased the land for this group to assemble and plot. Perhaps Baathist where not involved in which case I would reframe from hinting at Izzat Ibramim al-Douri's fingers being involved. In any case. They are a real bunch of losers. Much like the goons that slayed and where slain in the original battle.
I think it was Roggio's account...found it:
Iraqi Army battles Shia cult, Sunni insurgents in Najaf
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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 Shiite 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 Shiite 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] Shiite 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.
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