From AP via Breitbart:
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.
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Authorities said Iraqi soldiers supported by U.S. aircraft fought all day Sunday with a large group of insurgents in the Zaraq area, about 12 miles northeast of the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
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[Iraqi Maj. Gen. Othman] Al-Ghanemi said the army captured some 500 automatic rifles in addition to mortars, heavy machine guns and Russian-made Katyusha rockets in what amounted to a major test for Iraq’s new military as it works toward taking over responsibility for security from U.S.-led forces.
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Al-Ghanemi said 600 to 700 gunmen had planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and attack Najaf on Tuesday, the day they believed that the Imam Mahdi, or the “hidden imam,” would reappear. He said leading Shiite ayatollahs consider such fringe elements as heretics.
Their aim was to kill as many leading clerics as possible, al-Ghanemi said.
Najaf government officials indicated the militants included both Shiite and Sunni extremists, as well as foreign fighters.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t the Democrat left been complaining that the Iraqis weren’t doing enough to “stand up” on their own? Weren’t they complaining that the US military was carrying too much of the burden and the Iraqis needed to do more to fight insurgents and militants? Yes, I thought so. Well here we have a battle where the Iraqi forces, with backing by the US, kicked the hell out of a large group of insurgents, killing at least 200 of them. Where’s the left’s congratulations the Iraqis for standing up? I guess they were a little too busy yesterday, demanding that the US pull the troops out and abandon the Iraqis. Or perhaps they were preoccupied with spraypainting the US Capitol steps, or spitting at disabled Iraq War veterans?
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