Got to get out for food and errands....be back much later....
Iraqi forces kill 250 militants in Najaf
Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:07pm ET
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces killed some 250 gunmen from an apocalyptic Muslim cult on Sunday in a battle involving U.S. tanks and aircraft near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, Iraqi police, army and political sources said.
Two Americans were killed, the U.S. military said, when an attack helicopter went down during the day-long battle in what was one of the strangest incidents of the four-year conflict. Iraqi officials said the helicopter seemed to be shot down.
According to one Iraqi political source, hundreds of fighters drawn from both Sunni and Shi'ite communities were still fighting. A Reuters reporter at the scene, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, saw U.S. tanks and heard blasts after dark and an Iraqi officer said F-16 jets were bombing the area.
Details of the day's fighting were sketchy and the origins of the fighters unclear. An Iraqi army source said some of the dead wore headbands declaring themselves a "Soldier of Heaven".
The governor of Najaf province said the group had gathered in orchards near the city and had been planning to attack the main Shi'ite clerical leadership on Monday. It is the climax of the annual Shi'ite rite of Ashura, marking a 7th century battle which entrenched the schism between Shi'ite and Sunni Islam.
Earlier, the governor described the fighters as Sunnis, the majority in the Arab world and the once dominant minority in Iraq, where Shi'ites have been in the ascendant since the U.S. invasion of 2003. The two sects are embroiled in conflict that many fear is descending into all-out civil war.
But political and security sources said they were followers of Ahmed Hassani al-Yemeni and described him as an apocalyptic cult leader claiming to be the vanguard of the Mahdi -- a messiah-like figure in Islam whose coming heralds the start of perfect world justice. He had been operating from an office in Najaf until it was raided and closed down about 10 days ago.
CULTS
Similar violent cults have been a feature of Islamic history. They have declared temporal Muslim leaders illegitimate infidels and have drawn followers from both Sunni and Shi'ite believers, proclaiming a unity of inspiration from Mohammad.
Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims were gathering in the holy city of Kerbala, between Najaf and Baghdad, to mark Ashura -- the death of Mohammad's grandson Hussein in the Battle of Kerbala in 680, which confirmed the split in Islam between supporters of rival claimants to the Prophet's inheritance.
In Baghdad, 13 people were killed in bombings in mainly Shi'ite areas, police said. In a Sunni area, five girls were killed when a mortar struck their school yard.
Twin car bombs targeting ethnic Kurds killed 16 people as night fell in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, whose population is a volatile mix of Kurds, Turkmen and Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs.
Najaf governor Asaad Abu Gilel told Reuters the authorities had uncovered a plot to kill some of the clerics on Monday, to coincide with the climax of Ashura: "There is a conspiracy to kill the clergy on the 10th day of Muharram," he said, referring to Monday by the Muslim calendar.
The Reuters reporter about 1.5 km (1 mile) from the fighting said he heard intense gunfire and saw U.S. helicopters rocket groves sheltering militants. He saw smoke trailing from one helicopter before it came down in the midst of the fighting.
(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Ross Colvin, Mariam Karouny, Claudia Parsons and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad)
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2007-01-28T210029Z_01_L2828035_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml&pageNumber=1&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage1
It's the surge, my friend. Take down time.
47 killed, dozens wounded in Iraq violence
(DPA)
28 January 2007
BAGHDAD - Ongoing violence in and around Baghdad claimed at least 47 more Iraqi lives on Sunday despite beefed-up security and police raids.
In Kirkuk, 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, a car bomb killed eight Iraqis and wounded 15 others in a district dominated by Shias and Kurds. The bomb was detonated in a busy car market.
Adel Abdel-Mohsen, adviser to the Minister of Industry, was shot down by armed militants in Yarmouk district, western Baghdad. His two daughters and three others were also killed.
Earlier, in the same area, an adviser for the Agriculture Ministry was also killed, reported the Al Iraqia state channel.
The official was accompanying four other Iraqis in a vehicle when they were shot at by armed militants. The official - whose name has not been disclosed - and his escorts died instantly.
Another Iraqi was killed, and seven more wounded, when an explosive device blew up inside a mini-bus in the east of the capital.
Near the Al Nedaa Sunni mosque in northern Baghdad, one person was killed and nine others were wounded when an explosive-laden car, parked on the roadside, blew up. The street was busy with labourers looking for day jobs.
Separately, eyewitnesses told Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA that mortar shells had fallen on a school in western Baghdad killing five female students and wounding 20 others.
In Shia-dominated Sadr city in eastern Baghdad, a vehicle exploded, killing at least four people and wounding 32 others.
Meanwhile, armed clashes erupted between Iraqi security forces and ‘terrorist’ group Najaf, 180 kilometres south of Baghdad.
Najaf and neighbouring city Karbala, where more than 25,000 policemen and soldiers were deployed last Tuesday, are currently swarming with Muslim pilgrims who are celebrating the Shia Ashura festival.
In the Zarka area of Kufa, near Najaf, militants belonging to Jund Allah (Soldiers of God) and Iraqi policemen clashed. US military helicopters reportedly provided aid during the raid.
Najaf governor Assad Abu-Kalal told the press that at least 14 militants were killed so far and five Afghani militants were detained during the ongoing clashes.
The governor confirmed that US military helicopters provided cover for the security forces. However, he did not confirm reports of a US helicopter accident, saying only that ‘a foreign object’ had crashed into a nearby river.
The governor refused any further comments.
In Soueira, 45 kilometres south of Baghdad, armed clashes between joint Iraqi army and security forces from one side and militants from another were also reported.
The clashes occurred after the forces cordoned off the village and started house-by-house raids toeing terror suspects.
According to a credible police source, who chose to remain anonymous, at least three Iraqi servicemen were killed and four others wounded. A militant was also accidentally injured.
The village housing the Islamic militants also suffered ‘losses’ that were not fully assessed by the joint forces, according to the police source.
Earlier in the day, the joint Iraqi forces had asked for urgent assistance from the US military, ‘who carried out an air raid on the village,’ causing some damage in the process.
The day before, a police station in the same village was attacked by mortar shells. Reportedly, those responsible for the incident were among those targeted in Sunday’s raid.
Iraq continues to be engulfed by violence as Premiere Nuri Al Maliki continues to promote his new-found Iraq security plan in which forces around Baghdad are expected to be boosted, and better equipped.
On Sunday, a source close to Al Maliki said that the date for the Iraqi plan to take effect remained ‘unknown’ and would not be announced for security reasons.
Shia MP Hassan Al Sanid told Iraqi press that Al Maliki would ‘surprise the militants and the outlaws.’
In another development, the US-led coalition announced Sunday that their forces captured 21 terror suspects around Iraq, including a senior Al Qaeda member, ‘an improvised explosives devices cell leader and a foreign fighter facilitator.’
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/January/focusoniraq_January193.xml§ion=focusoniraq