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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.
Not quite the homecoming he expected, I imagine....
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.