Iraqi and American troops performed beautifully today to defeat a large attack on the city of Najaf:
A battle between U.S.-backed Iraqi troops and insurgents raged into Monday morning after Iraqi officials said they foiled a plot to attack pilgrims and kill leading clerics in the Shiite Muslim holy city.
Iraqi interior and defense ministry officials told CNN an estimated 250 to 300 gunmen had been killed in the fight north of Najaf.
They were part of a force of 400 to 600 insurgents who planned a massive siege of Najaf on Tuesday. Tuesday is the culmination of the Shiite holy period of Ashura when Shiites mark the 7th-century martyrdom of the Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson.
Iraqi officials said insurgents planned to seize control of the city and the surrounding province and kill top Shiite religious figures — including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most revered Shiite leader. (Watch what the insurgents planned in their attack)
At least nine Iraqis and two Americans were killed in the battle, which was "90 percent over" early Monday, Najaf police Col. Ali Jraiwi told the state television network al-Iraqia.
Jraiwi said the Iraqis were tipped off that insurgents were gathering near the town of Zarqa, about six miles (10 km) north of Najaf.
He said they moved south among convoys of Shiite pilgrims headed to Najaf to observe Ashura.
He said captured fighters told Iraqi authorities they planned to attack senior clerics and the Imam Ali Shrine at the heart of the city.
Insurgents used small arms, mortars and rockets against Iraqi soldiers and police backed by U.S. troops and aircraft, according to Jraiwi.
This report states that the enemy troops were followers of a cult figure:
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.
[…]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.
[…]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 about 10 days ago.
Similar violent cults have been a feature of Islamic history. They have declared temporal Muslim leaders illegitimate infidels and have drawn followers from both Sunni and Shi’ite believers, proclaiming a unity of inspiration from Mohammad.
Tips from the locals helped the Iraqi government defeat a determined enemy, good news right? Check out the headline of the news story right below this one:
Clinton attacks Bush’s "irresponsibility" on Iraq
Doesn’t matter if the Iraq war is going well with another Iraqi battalion taking over security duties from the Americans:
NAJAF, Iraq (CNN) — The 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division officially took charge of independent operations in west Ramadi during a ceremony at Camp Ali Jan. 22.
This is the third battalion in the 1st Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division to assume authority over another area in the city during the past five months, signifying the continued progress of the brigade.
Or that the Iraqi Special Forces are performing admirably:
Special Iraqi Army Forces conducted operations with coalition advisors Jan. 25 near Taji to save an Iraqi family who was being threatened by terrorists linked to al Qaeda in Iraq.
Iraqi forces were able to evacuate all six family members from the hostile environment to the safety of an Iraqi Army compound in Baghdad. One person was taken into Iraqi custody for questioning.
Special Iraqi Police Forces captured the suspected leader of a terrorist bombing cell during operations with Coalition advisors Jan. 25 in northern Babil Province near Haswah. The cell leader is responsible for coordinating and carrying out improvised explosive device attacks against Iraqi civilians and security forces in the area.
The booming economy, the ever growing Iraqi troop numbers, the defeat and deaths of scores of enemy terrorists and the infrastructure going up all over the country:
All that would be enough to tell Clinton and her cohorts that things are NOT all screwed up, you would think. Sure, the MSM (cough AP cough) will only print the doom and gloom but these political leaders know better. They get briefings on this sort of thing but just like the MSM they choose to ignore it to make it fit with how they WANT the situation to look like.
UPDATE
Michael Yon emailed this to Instapundit which is quite enlightening on our MSM:
"There are two types of media sources covering this war: the ones who are here, and those who are not. The media is Missing In Action, and reporting from afar. Yesterday, for instance, major media reported on an attack in a small village north of Mosul. None of those sources actually visited the village. I did."
Why would they go visit the locations of stories when they have Jamil Hussein to give them the WHOLE scoop?
UPDATE
New York Times with an update on todays battle:
For 15 hours, Iraqi forces backed by American helicopters and tanks battled hundreds of gunmen hiding in a date palm orchard near the village of Zarqaa, about 120 miles south of Baghdad, by a river and a large grain silo that is surrounded by orchards, the officials said.
It appeared to be one of the deadliest battles in Iraq since the American-led invasion four years ago, and was the first major fight for Iraqi forces in Najaf Province since they took over control of security there from the Americans in December.
That handover was trumpeted by the Iraqi government at the time as a sign of its progress in regaining more control of Iraqi territory.
[…]Asad Abu Ghalal, the governor of Najaf Province, said the fighters in the orchard were Iraqi and foreign, some wearing the brown, white and maroon regalia of Pakistani and Afghan fighters. He said they had come to assassinate Shiite clerics and attack religious convoys that were gathering in Najaf, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest cities, and other southern cities for Ashura, a Shiite holiday that starts Monday night.
At a news conference on Sunday afternoon, Mr. Ghalal said the fighters called themselves the Soldiers of Heaven, and seemed to be part of a wider Sunni effort to disrupt Ashura, which marks the seventh-century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein.
[…]But two senior Shiite clerics said the gunmen were part of a Shiite splinter group that Saddam Hussein helped build in the 1990s to compete with followers of the venerated Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They said the group, calling itself the Mehwadiya, was loyal to Ahmad bin al-Hassan al-Basri, an Iraqi cleric who had a falling out with Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr — father-in-law of the Shiite leader Moktada al-Sadr — in Hawza, a revered Shiite seminary in Najaf.
[…]Iraqi officials said the group of 100 to 600 fighters was discovered in the orchard Saturday night, leading to a midnight meeting of local authorities who hatched an attack plan.
“We agreed to carry out an operation to take them by surprise,” said Mr. Ghalal, the Najaf governor.
At dawn, the governor said, the area was surrounded and the offensive began. He said the militants had antiaircraft rockets and long-range sniper rifles, and, according to a soldier involved in the fighting, Iraqi security forces encountered heavy resistance. Commanders called for reinforcements and a brigade of soldiers from nearby Babil Province joined the fight.
Eventually, Iraqi officials said, they called on the United States military for help. American tanks and helicopter gunships arrived, and gun battles continued into the night. By 10:30 p.m., the gunfire had died down and Iraqi troops began searching the area for bodies.
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And these “soliders of heaven” plotted this mass attack to create the violent and bloody conditions they believe would bring back the “hidden imam” the five year old who disappeared in Samara in the 9th Century.
Return of the hidden or 12th imam is supposed to ring in a period of peace and justice. Funny how they think that in order to get to peace and justice you have to kill as many innoncent people as possible.
Guess who else believes that mass violence and death is the key to the return of the 12th imam.
Come on guess!
Could it be there are links between those who are fomenting the violence they believe is necessary to bring the return of the hidden imam?