Raids foil plot to kill Shia pilgrims
Stephen Farrell in Baghdad and Hassan al-Jarrah in Najaf
Clashes 'kill 250 insurgents' in Najaf
1,500 policemen sacked in Baquba
Iraqi troops backed by US tanks and helicopter gunships fought insurgents near the Shia city of Najaf yesterday as the Government said it had foiled an attempt to kill pilgrims during a key religious festival.
A US helicopter crashed during the fighting. Witnesses said that they saw it come down after trailing smoke during a machinegun battle.
Iraqi police officials in Najaf said that 250 insurgents were killed during bombing raids and gun battles, although similar claims have been wildly exaggerated in the past.
US military officials confirmed that two soldiers were killed aboard the helicopter after it crashed while “conducting operations to assist Iraqi Security Forces.” Their remains have been recovered. As the violence flared 100 miles south of Baghad, police officials in the northern town of Baquba said that the town’s mayor and 1,500 policemen had been fired.
Ghanim al-Qureyshi, the provincial police chief, said that halid Al-Senjeri, a Sunni, was dismissed as mayor amid suspicions that he was collaborating with Sunni insurgents. The policemen were dismissed for fleeing instead of fighting insurgents who attacked the town last November, wreaking havoc on the capital of Sunnimajority Diyala province bordering Iran.
In Najaf there were conflicting reports about the battle. Assad Sultan Abu Klil, the provincial governor, said that the operation — which continued after nightfall — was launched after intelligence reports that insurgents planned to kill Shia clerics and pilgrims during Ashoura. This is a religious festival during which hundreds of thousands of Shias converge on nearby Karbala to commemorate the 7th-century death of the Prophet Muhammad’ s grandson, Imam Hussein.
The death of Hussein and his brother Abbas at the hands of the Damascus-based caliph Yazid was the defining event in the early history of Islam that led to the schism between Sunnis and Shias, reflected in the post-Saddam era by the power struggle between the two communities for control of Iraq.
The Ashoura ceremonies, which involve self-flagellation and blood-letting by the most devout pilgrims, have been targeted by Sunni guerrillas.
But other officials at the joint US and Iraqi coordination centre said that the rebel fighters wore headbands, indicating that they belonged to a Shia faction named Jund al-Samaa (Soldiers of Heaven), reflecting religious and political divisions even within Iraq’s majority Shia population. It is possible that Sunni insurgents, foreign fighters or even other Shia groups dressed like the Samaa to confuse government forces.
A week ago killers dressed in US army uniforms penetrated security cordons around a supposedly secure building in Karbala, killing one US soldier at the scene and abducting and later killing four others.
The joint Najaf operation, in which US forces provided ground and air support for Iraqi troops, is the model President Bush and Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, are to rely on for the forthcoming Baghdad security operation intended to restore order and curb attacks by Sunni insurgents and Shia death squads.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-2572321,00.html
Police chief sacks 1,500 officers
The mayor of Baqouba and 1,500 policemen in Diyala province have been fired in a bid to end the raging violence in the region northeast of Baghdad, the provincial police chief has said. Ghanim al-Qureyshi, who took over police operations in the violent province after his predecessor was sacked last month, said Mayor Khalid Al-Senjeri, a Sunni Muslim, was dismissed over suspicions he was collaborating with Sunni insurgent fighters. Only last week, the mayor was reported kidnapped by Sunni insurgents who blew up his office in Baqouba and stole several new police vehicles. He was released a few days later. Baqouba is the Diyala province capital.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/TGD/tgdBreakingNewsDisplay/0,,3,00.html#0
Iraq clashes 'kill 250 militants'
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Three Iraqi soldiers had reportedly died in the battle and 21 were injured.
The US military said two of its troops died when their helicopter was shot down, but did not confirm any of the Iraqi casualty figures.
An Iraqi official in the Najaf governor's office told the BBC that 21 Iraqi soldiers had been injured in the clashes, which occurred in a neighbourhood called Zarqa, and the Iraqi army was sweeping the area.