It certainly doesn't sound plausible that over 400+ insurgents would mass in a single grove to be conveniently slaughtered by the Najaf police and army, which are wholly owned by the Badr Brigades. If so, it's one of the biggest single assemblies of insurgent forces in Iraq since Fallujah.
Well something similiar did happ here back in OCT. Back in OCT about 150 insurgents (most were what we call part timers or recent converts) assembled in about a 1 KM area close to a large US FOB. They had several different staging points within the city area. They were identified by the IPs and IA basically getting overtly out of cars and trucks and loading up from large mobile caches. The IPs and IA did not wait, but opened fire on any who did not immediately get down on the ground. The area was later cordoned off and house to house searches rounded up the rest.

How did this happen you ask? Why did the AIF treat the operation like a dove hunt? Well it turns out they were misinformed or maybe disinformed. Many had been told a story (possibly to embolden them) that the IA and IP would assist them in an attack on the CF FOB.

Lots of stuff seized from that one - heavy mortars, DshKas, PKCs, Sniper rifles, etc - also seized was a target list with complete names of some IA officers they were to look for and assassinate (which incidentally the Ninewa Gov read aloud on Mosul TV ). It reminded me of an episode of "You've been Punked".

This was a big morale boost as it was primarily an ISF success, but it never really made the news.

About 2 weeks later the AIF gave it another try. They used about 12 teams of 15 men and conducted distributed attacks against ISF HQs and outposts. Again the ISF handed them a defeat - it was another good day.


I think allot of the reason you see them mass is due to necessity. Its a matter of C2, quality of recruit and training (many of the guys we see now are green - the vets are in many cases dead or locked up - mostly dead). They basically have only a few choices when trying to carry off something really big with guys that who may fight well individually, but are not used to being coordinated - put them in mass and do Slim's #8 (mandatory Blazing Saddles ref.), or break them up and give them well known targets with a tee time. We've seen both up here.