Iraqi forces attacked an army of insurgents who called themselves ‘Soldiers of Heaven’, backed by Americans they killed the leader of the jihadists and killed between 200 - 300 enemy combatants.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi officials said Monday that U.S.-backed Iraqi troops had targeted a religious cult called “Soldiers of Heaven” in a weekend battle that left 200 fighters dead, including the group’s leader, near the Shiite holy city of Najaf. A military commander said hundreds of gunmen planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill clerics on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.
The Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said the raid on Sunday in date-palm orchards on the city’s outskirts was aimed against a group called the Jund al-Samaa, or Soldiers of Heaven, which appeared to have had links to Saddam Hussein loyalists and foreign fighters. Officials said the cult was hoping the violence it planned would force the return of the “hidden imam,” a 9th-century Shiite saint who Shiites believe will come again to bring peace and justice to the world.
This cult apparently has the same or similar belief system as the president of Iran, Ahmadinejad. This belief system has to do with creating chaos in order to hasten the return of the 12th Iman.
This was one of the largest battle fought in Iraq to date. It was certainly significant in the fact that the Iraqi Army took the lead in planning and executing an attack on intelligence that this group planned to assassinate pilgrims and clerics on a Shiite holy day pilgrimage.
Provincial Gov. Assad Sultan Abu Kilel said the insurgents had planned to attack Shiite pilgrims and senior clerics in Najaf during ceremonies marking Ashoura, the holiest day in the Shiite calendar commemorating the 7th-century death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
The fighting went on all day. The Iraqi army called for backup from American and British troops who backed them up.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A mysterious group of religious zealots who fought a fierce battle with American and Iraqi troops on Sunday were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and five anti-aircraft machine guns rigged on tractors - raising questions about how a group with no known ties to Iraq’s current cast of political organizations came to be so well equipped and trained.
“They fought according to a military arrangement, and they moved as platoons and companies,” Abdul Hussein Abtan, the deputy governor of Najaf, said Monday.
Ali Nomas, a spokesman for the security forces in Najaf, said the militants, who numbered from 1,000 to 1,500, had purchased farms and surrounded them with a dirt barricade and a bulldozed trench. More than 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 700 rocket-propelled grenades were recovered after the battle, Nomas said.
Among the 300 or so militants killed in Sunday’s fighting was the group’s leader, Iraqi authorities said. As many as 400 others were arrested, including some dressed as Afghan fighters, Iraqi spokesmen said. U.S. officials put the number of arrests at more than 100.
This was a significant battle, a huge victory for Iraqi and American Troops and it’s not hardly mentioned in the news. When it is mentioned, it is mentioned in terms of the American helicopter shot down (so there can be more added to the MSMs obsession with body counting), a sappy NYTs article on the effect of one bullet, that a mortar hit a school yard (it actually hit the school yard the day before, but they make it sound like that was part of the battle).
It’s sad to me that we can’t celebrate the victories of our Troops and only focus on the sensational, emotional stories that will help to garner discontent and a sense that we are losing the war. Further proof that the progressives really do want us to lose this war and weaken America.
HOOAH!!!!! Our Troops ROCK!!!!
LindaSog has video of the battle.
MSN has some video
Where’s the Outrage calls this a bold move on the part of the insurgents. He states they obviously thought they could pull it off. I wonder where they would have gotten that emboldened?? Can’t imagine!
More: Outside the Beltway, Iraq the Model, Common Sense America, PAXALLES, STACLU
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One of the things that pissed me off about the news coverage of this event was how the media didn’t give any credit to the Iraqi soldiers that were in the trenches shooting it out, but instead chose questioned their ability to defend themselves because they called in air strikes and ground support.
US ‘victory’ against cult leader was ‘massacre’
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
Published: 31 January 2007
There are growing suspicions in Iraq that the official story of the battle outside Najaf between a messianic Iraqi cult and the Iraqi security forces supported by the US, in which 263 people were killed and 210 wounded, is a fabrication. The heavy casualties may be evidence of an unpremeditated massacre.
A picture is beginning to emerge of a clash between an Iraqi Shia tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint that led the US to intervene with devastating effect. The involvement of Ahmed al-Hassani (also known as Abu Kamar), who believed himself to be the coming Mahdi, or Messiah, appears to have been accidental.
The story emerging on independent Iraqi websites and in Arabic newspapers is entirely different from the government’s account of the battle with the so-called “Soldiers of Heaven”, planning a raid on Najaf to kill Shia religious leaders.
The cult denied it was involved in the fighting, saying it was a peaceful movement. The incident reportedly began when a procession of 200 pilgrims was on its way, on foot, to celebrate Ashura in Najaf. They came from the Hawatim tribe, which lives between Najaf and Diwaniyah to the south, and arrived in the Zarga area, one mile from Najaf at about 6am on Sunday. Heading the procession was the chief of the tribe, Hajj Sa’ad Sa’ad Nayif al-Hatemi, and his wife driving in their 1982 Super Toyota sedan because they could not walk. When they reached an Iraqi army checkpoint it opened fire, killing Mr Hatemi, his wife and his driver, Jabar Ridha al-Hatemi. The tribe, fully armed because they were travelling at night, then assaulted the checkpoint to avenge their fallen chief.
Members of another tribe called Khaza’il living in Zarga tried to stop the fighting but they themselves came under fire. Meanwhile, the soldiers and police at the checkpoint called up their commanders saying they were under attack from al-Qai’da with advanced weapons. Reinforcements poured into the area and surrounded the Hawatim tribe in the nearby orchards. The tribesmen tried - in vain - to get their attackers to cease fire.
American helicopters then arrived and dropped leaflets saying: “To the terrorists, surrender before we bomb the area.” The tribesmen went on firing and a US helicopter was hit and crashed killing two crewmen. The tribesmen say they do not know if they hit it or if it was brought down by friendly fire. The US aircraft launched an intense aerial bombardment in which 120 tribesmen and local residents were killed by 4am on Monday.
The messianic group led by Ahmad al-Hassani, which was already at odds with the Iraqi authorities in Najaf, was drawn into the fighting because it was based in Zarga and its presence provided a convenient excuse for what was in effect a massacre. The Hawatim and Khaza’il tribes are opposed to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Dawa Party, who both control Najaf and make up the core of the Baghdad government.
This account cannot be substantiated and is drawn from the Healing Iraq website and the authoritative Baghdad daily Azzaman. But it would explain the disparity between the government casualties - less than 25 by one account - and the great number of their opponents killed and wounded. The Iraqi authorities have sealed the site and are not letting reporters talk to the wounded.
Sectarian killings across Iraq also marred the celebration of the Shia ritual of Ashura. A suicide bomber killed 23 worshippers and wounded 57 others in a Shia mosque in Balad Ruz. Not far away in Khanaqin, in Diyala, a bomb killed 13 people, including three women, and wounded 29 others. In east Baghdad mortar bombs killed 17 people.
Source: http:// news .independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2201103. ece
BSC: So the ‘Soldiers of Heaven’ got beat like a rented mule and are now saying they weren’t really there to fight. Is that it? If they had won the battle I imagine they’d be jumping up and down and claiming victory.
The US dropped leaflets and warned them before they started bombing - which is much more than is required and certainly more than THEY have done before attacking our Troops.
So now you and they are trying to spin the reason they got beaten so badly. Boo-hoo.
You can spout out as much propaganda as you want. As for me - I’m on America’s side. PERIOD. I will never waiver from that stance.
As a major player in this battle, I thank you for your comments on the matter. I equate this to a forgotten battle. Only a blurb on the bottom of the screen, but was probably one of the most significant events of the war. The public affairs of this account was horribly mismanaged and a shame or the men that fought in the battle. Only the one’s there will be able to know what actually happened there and unfortunately, it will stay with them as the credit never rested with the right people. A shame this is and will forever be.