Great pics of the moonbat convention.
Two senior Shiite clerics said, however, that the gunmen were part of a Shiite splinter group that Saddam Hussein helped build in the 1990s to compete with followers of the venerated religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They said the group, calling itself the Mehwadiya, was loyal to Ahmad bin al-Hassan al-Basri, an Iraqi cleric who had a falling out with Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr — father-in-law of the Shiite leader Moktada al-Sadr — in Hawza, a revered Shiite seminary in Najaf.
The clerics spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they had been ordered not to discuss Shiite divisions.
Iraqi officials said the group of 100 to 500 fighters was discovered in the orchard Saturday night, leading to a midnight meeting of local authorities who hatched an attack plan.
“We agreed to carry out an operation to take them by surprise,” said Mr. Ghalal, the Najaf governor.
At dawn, the governor said, the area was surrounded and the offensive began. He said the fighters had antiaircraft rockets and long-range sniper rifles, and, according to a soldier involved in the fighting, Iraqi security forces encountered heavy resistance. Commanders called for reinforcements and a brigade of soldiers from nearby Babil Province joined the fight.
Eventually, Iraqi officials said, they called on the United States military for help. American tanks and helicopter gunships arrived, and gun battles continued into the night. By 10:30 p.m., the gunfire had died down and Iraqi troops began searching the area for bodies
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/28cnd-iraq.html?ex=1327726800&en=d74ee590f3e48bd0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss