"They are well-equipped and they even have anti-aircraft missiles,"
And Foreigners from Pakistan and Afghan.....this sounds like it might be an al_Queda operation trying to disguise itself in some clever way.........
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.
this is going to be a major issue in the surge - our rules of engagement over the last 1+ years have allowed the insurgency to build infrastructure, amass weapons and equipment, store them someplace, and equip their fighters with them now. these aren't just some guys with AK47s and small arms, and IEDs they make by digging out buried artillery shells, we are facing anymore.