BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s army announced Monday it killed the leader of a heavily armed cult called Soldiers of Heaven in a fierce gunbattle aimed at foiling a plot to attack leading Shiite clerics and pilgrims in Najaf on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.
The 24-hour battle was ultimately won by Iraqi troops supported by U.S. and British jets and American ground forces.
Members of the Shiite group, which included women and children, planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill as many leading clerics as possible, said Maj. Gen. Othman al-Ghanemi, the Iraqi commander in charge of the Najaf region.
They planned first to occupy a major mosque in Najaf, then bombard the police stations and kill the religious leaders, said Abdul-Hussein Abtan, deputy governor of Najaf.
The cult’s leader was among those who died in the battle, al-Ghanemi said. He was identified as Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim, 37, from Hillah, south of Baghdad.
The U.S. military said Iraqi security forces were sent to the area Sunday after receiving a tip that gunmen were joining pilgrims headed to Najaf for Ashoura, a commemoration of the 7th-century death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The religious festival culminates today.
The gunmen had put up tents in fields lined with date palm groves surrounding Najaf.
The planned attack on Najaf by Soldiers of Heaven was an attempt by the cult to force the return of the “hidden imam,” a 9th-century saint who Shiites believe will return to bring peace and justice to the world, according to a member of the local provincial council. Al-Ghanemi said the group is considered heretical by mainstream Shiite clerics.
In the battle to foil the attack on the pilgrims, Iraqi and U.S. forces faced off against hundreds of 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. American ground forces were also deployed after a U.S. helicopter was downed, killing two soldiers.
U.S. and British jets played a major role in the fighting, dropping 500-pound bombs on the militants.
The U.S. military said more than 100 gunmen were captured but it did not say how many were killed. Iraqi defense officials said 200 militants were killed, 60 wounded and at least 120 captured.
Iraqi officials said Sunni extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists were helping the cult in their bid to ambush Shiite worshippers. Other Najaf government officials said Afghans, Saudis and even a Sudanese were among the dead.
U.S. military deaths The latest identifications reported by the U.S. military of personnel recently killed in Iraq:
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