250 Insurgents Die in Battle
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S.-backed Iraqi troops on Sunday attacked insurgents allegedly plotting to kill pilgrims at a major Shiite Muslim religious festival, and Iraqi officials estimated some 250 militants died in the daylong battle near Najaf. A U.S. helicopter crashed during the fight, killing two American soldiers.
Wow! This is a big fight for one day in Iraq. That is nearly a small battalion KIA. Nice job. Patton style.
Interesting that some Iraqi officials claim these are Shia "cults" and some are claiming them as Sunni insurgents.
I'd wait a bit before making any judgments about this engagement.
Oh, I'm not making any judgments and I know where you're coming from. I'm just stating that is a lot of dudes KIA in one day if the reports are correct. I'm not interested in who these guys were/are. Iraqi and Coalition forces killed them. Whoever they were they decided to stand and fight. I also love the way the AP gives the headline of the story then throw in "A Day in Iraq". They rarely have a single story covering a single incident. Just in case you feel compelled to celebrate or acknowledge a counterinsurgency victory they'll find a way to throw in that the insurgents blew up a PetSmart full of people and pets observing, "Bring in Your Pet Day Pilgrimage".
Well, that's kind of the thing, isn't it? Is this a "counterinsurgency victory?" This Iraqi blogger doesn't think so.
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.The official U.S. and Iraqi story about what happened in Najaf today, which was swallowed and propagated by news wires (and apparently also the New York Times), is complete nonsense. First of all, they can’t even decide whether they were fighting Sunni insurgents or a “violent Shi’ite cult,” as Reuters’ unnamed self-appointed expert put it in their story. Secondly, the U.S. and Iraqi descriptions don’t match and both contain gross inconsistencies; Najaf’s governor, As’ad Abu Gilel, who is a member of the pro-Iranian SCIRI, said they were Sunni insurgents, including Pakistani and Afghan fighters, plotting to stage an attack against Shia pilgrims commemorating the holy month of Muharram in Najaf, and to possibly attack the Shi’ite clerical leadership that is based in the old city, around the shrine of Imam Ali. Then he turned around and said they were local [Shia] loyalists to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, probably referring to the Shi’ite tribe of Bani Hassan around Kufa, which facilitated the assault by Saddam’s Republican Guard against rebels in the 1991 Intifada. (The Bani Hassan tribe is despised by major Shi’ite political parties, and residents of Najaf scornfully refer to their town of Al-Abbasiya, across the Euphrates from Kufa, as Al-Ouja, which is the hometown of Saddam Hussein near Tikrit. Many members of Bani Hassan also supported Sadrists in their 2004 uprising.) A U.S. military source confirmed that 250 “insurgents” were killed and several other militants were captured, including a Sudanese. An Iraqi security source, however, as well as the local Iraqi media, identified the militants as members of a Shi’ite splinter group called Al-Mahdiyoun or Ansar Al-Imam Al-Mahdi, which if true means the U.S. military was once again duped into doing the dirty work of SCIRI and other Shi’ite factions – and, I daresay, Iran – for them.
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But, as I said, he barely has a few hundred followers scattered all over the country, and I doubt that he would come up with something as foolish as attacking Najaf, because actually it was his movement that has been under attack lately by Iraqi security forces, heavily infiltrated by SCIRI in the south. Last week, his main office and husseiniya in Najaf was raided and destroyed with several of his followers detained by the Aqrab (Scorpion) Brigade of Interior Ministry Commandos. The same happened to his offices in Basrah, Amara and Karbala, days ago. Al-Hassan himself was placed under house arrest in Tannumah, Basrah, by the Iraqi government some months ago.
I suspect this whole campaign is a result of Al-Hassan’s strange, unorthodox teachings and his defiance of the mainstream Shi’ite religious and political institution, including, most importantly, Iran. The movement’s detractors claim the group has engaged in obscene behaviour such as walking naked in public or hosting group sex orgies in husseiniyas and mosques, in order to “provoke” the Imam Al-Mahdi to return, or that they are Saddam loyalists who were planted just before the war by the regime to undermine the Najaf clerical authority, with some even claiming the group is Israeli or supported by US. radical Christian movements.
The “preemptive” crackdown against Al-Hassan – like that against Mahmoud Al-Sarkhi months ago, which I wrote about here – bears all the signs of U.S. Shi’ite allies (SCIRI and Da’wa) fooling the U.S. into supporting them in their intra-Shi’ite struggle to control the south. This is even more shocking because these “cults,” as crazy as they may sound, have never carried arms or posed a threat to anyone; their activities are restricted to theological debate and polemics with other Shi’ite clerics and movements. The fact that they may have a few armed followers means nothing. Virtually everyone in Iraq is armed to the teeth. This might actually turn out to be a massacre against some harmless cultists. If true, then congratulations to the U.S. for carrying out Iran’s dirty deeds in Iraq yet again.
Iraqis: At Least 200 Insurgents Killed
The press is sticking to their story.
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.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.
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.
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