US, Iraqi forces kill 250 militants in Najaf

IRAQ: 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, on the eve of the highpoint of the Shi'ite religious calendar, 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".

Police Colonel Ali Nomas said 250 militants had been killed. The political source said up to 1,000 had been involved. An army source said they wore camouflage and appeared well organised.

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.

A million or more pilgrims gathered in the holy city of Kerbala, between Najaf and Baghdad, for Monday's ceremonies.

Earlier, the Najaf 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 earlier this month.

The sources said captured gunmen declared loyalty to Yemeni.

Baghdad, Monday, Reuters