Posted on 01/30/2007 3:37:12 PM PST by tobyhill
BAGHDAD, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A Shi'ite Muslim messianic cult, whose leader was reported to have been involved in fighting with U.S. and Iraqi troops, said on Tuesday it played no part in the battle in which about 260 people were killed.
Followers of Imam Ahmed al-Hassan al-Yamani, who styles himself the messenger or envoy of the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure in Islam, said theirs was a peaceful movement not linked to the "Soldiers of Heaven" who fought the day-long battle near the holy city of Najaf on Sunday.
Conflicting accounts from Iraqi political and security sources have thickened the fog of war, making it difficult to determine exactly whom the Iraqi and U.S. soldiers fought.
The site of the fighting, in which some women and children were also killed, has been sealed off and wounded survivors are in hospital under guard, with reporters being kept away.
The U.S. military has referred to them only as gunmen, but some Iraqi officials have said they were members of the "Soldiers of Heaven", a group they said had planned to massacre the top Shi'ite religious leadership at the climax of Ashura, the weeklong Shi'ite mourning ritual that ended on Tuesday.
The Iraqi Defence Ministry said on Tuesday 263 people were killed on Sunday, in an assault on a camp in orchards near Najaf. It said more than 500 were detained, of whom nearly half were wounded.
Iraqi security officials said on Monday that a man calling himself Ali bin Ali bin Abi Talib and styling himself the Mahdi, had been killed in the fighting but that the whereabouts of his "messenger" Ahmed al-Hassan was not known.
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.co.uk ...
Cue songs by Air Supply for the accompanying soundtrack.
islam is totally a cult of death, not just this group.
What is Iammadjohn? Chopped liver?
The terrorist killed just looked like cult members.
Messianic Cults? Where's Janet Reno when we need her?
"making it difficult to determine exactly whom the Iraqi and U.S. soldiers fought."
Oh, I think we have a pretty good idea.
Look east!
Mahdi bump
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