[Marxism] US/occupation govt forces slaughter 300 (latest figure) Shia dissidents

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All I can express is a strong feeling that there is more to this story than
the reported assassination plots.  On NPR this was reported with the
announcement that "we" are gaining in the Najaf region, which has actually
been relatively peaceful for about two years.  Sounds like as step in the
opposite direction.
Fred Feldman

Iraqis Raid Insurgents Near Shiite Holy City
U.S. Copter Crash Kills 2 During Fight

By Joshua Partlow and Saad Sarhan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 29, 2007; A01



BAGHDAD, Jan. 28 -- Iraqi soldiers, backed by U.S. helicopters, stormed an
encampment of hundreds of insurgents hiding among date palm orchards in
southern Iraq in an operation Sunday that set off fierce, day-long gun
battles during the holiest week for the country's Shiite Muslims.

Iraqi security officials said the troops killed scores of insurgents while
foiling a plot to annihilate the Shiite religious leadership in the revered
city of Najaf. A U.S. helicopter crashed during the fighting, killing two
soldiers.

The spokesman for Iraqi security forces in Najaf, Col. Ali Nomas Jerao, said
that 250 suspected insurgents were killed in the fighting, which took place
about eight miles northeast of Najaf, and that 40 people were detained. The
U.S. military did not provide death tolls for Iraqi forces or insurgents.

Thousands of Shiite pilgrims from Iraq and neighboring countries are
traveling this week in drum-beating caravans to the southern city of
Karbala, 50 miles north of Najaf, in commemoration of the death of the
prophet Muhammad's grandson in the 7th century. Iraqi authorities said they
believed that the fighters, a diverse cadre of Sunni, Shiite, Afghan and
other foreign gunmen, convened under cover of the pilgrims to set up a camp
within striking distance of the Shiite religious leadership when attention
was away from Najaf.

The fighters, who called themselves the Soldiers of the Sky, are driven by
an apocalyptic vision of clearing the Earth of the depraved in preparation
for the second coming of Muhammad al-Mahdi, a Shiite imam who disappeared in
the 9th century, according to Ahmed Duaibel, a spokesman for the provincial
government in Najaf. The governor of Najaf province, Assad Abu Gilel, said
the group planned to attack pilgrims and shrines and to assassinate Shiite
clerics at the peak of the religious holiday, called Ashura, which
culminates Tuesday.

"Imam Mahdi is among you," a voice on a loudspeaker could be heard saying by
a Washington Post special correspondent who spent the day at a checkpoint
near the orchards. "Fight until martyrdom."

"Today's attack was designed to destroy all of Najaf, even the holy shrine
of Imam Ali," said Duaibel, referring to one of the most revered Shiite
shrines, near the offices of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. If successful,
such a provocative attack could surpass in significance the bombing at the
Askariya shrine in Samarra last February that drastically escalated
sectarian killing in Iraq.

The fighting began overnight when a police checkpoint near Najaf came under
fire, leading the Iraqi police to the farms in the Zargaa area where the
fighters had dug trenches and stockpiled weapons, said Lt. Rahim al-Fetlawi,
a police officer in Najaf. The officers who responded found themselves
outgunned by the estimated 350 to 400 insurgents entrenched there, said Col.
Majid Rashid of the Iraqi army in Najaf.

Reinforcements from the Iraqi army's 8th Division arrived along with U.S.
helicopters and ground troops. Iraqi security forces maintain primary
control of Najaf province, and U.S. forces do not have an established,
full-time presence there. U.S. military units based in Baghdad responded to
Najaf when the fighting escalated.

"They saw that they needed some help and called in air support," a U.S.
military official said on condition of anonymity. "That's exactly what
they're supposed to do."

During the operation, a U.S. military helicopter based in Baghdad crashed
about 1:30 p.m., killing two soldiers, the military said. The military did
not say whether the helicopter was shot down.

A Washington Post special correspondent at the scene saw the helicopter
trailing smoke and circling before coming down in a field of sandy dirt.
Maj. Beshari al-Ghazali of the Iraqi army said that the helicopter was shot
down and that another U.S. helicopter took fire but did not crash. Iraqi
officials said the insurgents were using shoulder-fired rockets,
antiaircraft guns and Katyusha rockets.

"The people we were fighting were highly capable, well trained and very good
at street fighting," said Capt. Muthanna Ahmed, a spokesman for the police
in neighboring Babil province.

The prospect of insurgents lying in wait to attack Shiites illustrated the
crisis between rival religious groups in Iraq, where extremists remain
intent on undermining the religious and political order. The attack was the
first large-scale battle since Iraqi forces assumed security control of the
province last month and one of the deadliest Iraqi-led operations of the
war. In August 2004, the U.S. military waged a three-week battle in Najaf
against Shiite militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Iraqi officials said the insurgent leader on Sunday was Ahmed Hassan
al-Yamani, a Shiite from Diwaniyah province in southern Iraq.

"This is an impostor Shiite," said Sheik Ali al-Najafi, the son of Bashir
al-Najafi, one of the four leading Shiite religious figures in Najaf. "He is
aiming at dismembering the Shiites in Iraq" and assassinating Shiite
religious leaders, he said, "but God has failed him."

"These are very critical days now, because of the ceremonies of Ashura, and
of course there are expectations that terrorist groups and criminals will
launch attacks against the pilgrims who are trying to reach the city of
Karbala," said Haithem Hasani, a media adviser for Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the
head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite
political faction.

An Iraqi police official said he believed that some of the seasoned fighters
in the date palm grove came from Fallujah and Ramadi, embattled towns in the
western province of Anbar that are strongholds of the insurgent group
al-Qaeda in Iraq.

U.S. military officials said the operation was ongoing in Najaf, and the
clatter of gunfire and drone of aircraft were heard Sunday night.
[snip]




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