Police clash with cult gunmen in southern Iraq (Soldiers of Heaven)

Source: Reuters

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi police clashed with gunmen from a Shi'ite cult who staged a series of hit-and-run raids in two southern cities on Friday, security officials said.

Witnesses in Iraq's southern oil hub of Basra and Nassiriya said at least four people may have been killed in the violence, in which gunmen were reported to be using heavy machineguns and mortars.

The clashes came as religious observations for the annual Ashura festival, one of the holiest events in the Shi'ite Muslim religious calendar, approached their peak across southern Iraq.

Police in Basra and Nassiriya said fighters from the "Soldiers of Heaven" cult, an obscure group once led by a man who claimed to be the mahdi, an Islamic messiah-like figure, had opened fire on security forces in both cities.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080118/wl_nm/iraq_clashes_dc

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from last year:
Iraqi and U.S. forces faced off against more than 200 gunmen with small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades, the U.S. military said. The American military said U.S. air power was called in after the Iraqis faced fierce resistance.

U.S. and British jets played a major role in the fighting, dropping 500-pound bombs on the militants' positions, but President Bush said the battle was an indication that Iraqis were beginning to take control.


Havoc potential remains
''My first reaction on this report from the battlefield is that the Iraqis are beginning to show me something,'' Bush said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/234920,CST-NWS-iraq3...

from your article:

They said American ground troops — and not just air support as reported Sunday — were mobilized to help the Iraqi soldiers, who appeared to have dangerously underestimated the strength of the militia, which calls itself the Soldiers of Heaven and had amassed hundreds of heavily armed fighters.

So did * not know he had troops on the ground, or was he just pushing the propaganda that the Iraqi Army is starting to stand up.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2708547

Violent clashes have broken out in Iraq's southern cities of Basra and Nasiriyah between members of a Shia sect and Iraq's security forces, police said.

Street fighting erupted at around midday (0900 GMT) on Friday, when members of the Shia sect launched attacks on the security forces in the two cities, police and witnesses said.

At least nine people, including seven policemen and two civilian women, were killed in Nasiriyah, and 53 others were injured, according to the city's director general of health, Hadi al-Ramahi.

In Basra, police chief Major Abdul Jalil Khalaf, said fighting was taking place in three quarters of the city between the security forces and members of the so-called "Soldiers of Heaven" sect.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0AA665E7-1780-4E6D-BEA0-C7556C31EE15.htm

BAGHDAD, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's security forces clashed with gunmen of a Shiite militia in the southern city of Nassiriya on Friday, leaving at least 50 people dead, security and health sources said.

The sources said more than 70 were also wounded in the clashes between members of the so-called "Soldiers of Heaven" and Iraqi security troops in the capital city of Dhi Qar province, some 390 km south of Baghdad.

Among the dead were Colonel Naji Rostam al-Jabiry, commander of Nassiriya's emergency troops. and Colonel Zamil Bader al-Romadl, deputy chief of the criminal intelligence.

Militants of the group also launched an attack on police in the southern city of Basra, a local police source said, adding dozens of gunmen were killed or captured in the clash.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/19/content_7449649.htm