Bombs Kill 25 in Iraq During Ashoura

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*
Perilous Times*

Jan 30, 5:20 AM EST

*Bombs Kill 25 in Iraq During Ashoura*

By KIM GAMEL
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- At least 13 people were killed Tuesday after a
bomb left in a garbage can struck Shiites during ceremonies marking
Ashoura in a town near the Iranian border, police said. At least 39 were
wounded.

About an hour later, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the entrance
of a Shiite mosque in Mandali, a predominantly Shiite city also near the
Iranian border. At least 12 people were killed and 40 wounded in that
attack, police said.

The explosion that killed 13 hit as scores of Shiites were gathered in
downtown Khanaqin performing rituals on the holiest day on the Shiite
Islamic calendar, a commemoration of the 7th-century death of Imam
Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The major religious festival
culminates on Tuesday.

Police Maj. Idriss Mohammed said at least 13 people were killed and 39
were wounded, adding that most of the victims were Shiite Kurds. Most
Kurds are Sunni but a minority are Shiite.

Khanaqin is 87 miles northeast of Baghdad close to the Iranian border.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi army said it killed the leader of the heavily armed
cult during a fierce gunbattle on Monday aimed at foiling an attack on
leading Shiite clerics and pilgrims in the city of Najaf who were
celebrating Ashoura.

Senior Iraqi security officers said three gunmen of "the Soldiers of
Heaven" cult were captured in Najaf after renting a hotel room in front
of the office of Iraq's most senior Shiite spiritual leader, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, with plans to attack it.

The 24-hour battle was ultimately won by Iraqi troops supported by U.S.
and British jets and American ground forces. But the ability of a
splinter group little known in Iraq to rally hundreds of heavily armed
fighters was a reminder of the potential for chaos and havoc emerging
seemingly out of nowhere.

Members of the group, which included women and children, planned to
disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill as many leading clerics as
possible, said Maj. Gen. Othman al-Ghanemi, the Iraqi commander in
charge of the Najaf region.

The cult's leader, wearing jeans, a coat and a hat and carrying two
pistols, was among those who died in the battle, al-Ghanemi said.
Although he went by several aliases, he was identified as Dia Abdul
Zahra Kadim, 37, from Hillah, south of Baghdad, according to
Abdul-Hussein Abtan, deputy governor of Najaf. Kadim had been detained
twice in the past few years, Abtan said.

The U.S. military said Iraqi security forces were sent to the area
Sunday after receiving a tip that gunmen were joining pilgrims headed to
Najaf for Ashoura.

The gunmen had put up tents in fields lined with date palm groves
surrounding Najaf, 100 miles south of the capital. They planned to
launch their attack Monday night when Ashoura celebrations would be
getting under way, the Iraqi security officers told The Associated Press
on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose
the information.

In the battle to foil the attack on the pilgrims, Iraqi and U.S. forces
faced off against more than 200 gunmen with small arms fire,
rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades, the U.S. military said. The
battle took place about 12 miles northeast of Najaf.

While U.S. and British forces provided support, President Bush said the
battle was an indication that Iraqis were beginning to take control. "My
first reaction on this report from the battlefield is that the Iraqis
are beginning to show me something," he told National Public Radio on
Monday.

The U.S. military said more than 100 gunmen were captured but it did not
say how many were killed. Iraqi defense officials, by contrast, said 200
militants were killed, 60 wounded and at least 120 captured.

"It seems most likely that this was Shiite-on-Shiite violence, with
millenarian cultists making an attempt to march on Najaf during the
chaos of the ritual season of Muharram," Juan Cole, an Islamic scholar
at the University of Michigan, said on his Web site. "The dangers of
Shiite-on-Shiite violence in Iraq are substantial, as this episode
demonstrated."

But Iraqi officials said Sunni extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists
were helping the cult in their bid to ambush Shiite worshippers.

"We have information from our intelligence sources that indicated the
leader of this group had links with the former regime elements since
1993," said Ahmed al-Fatlawi said, a member of the Najaf provincial council.

Meanwhile, gunmen on Tuesday ambushed a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims
marking Ashoura, killing at least seven people and wounding seven,
police said.

The armed men drove by the bus in two cars and opened fire on the
occupants, then sped away, police said. The attack occurred about 10:30
a.m. in the western district of Hay al-Amil, a religiously mixed area.

Also Tuesday, a U.S. Marine was killed in fighting in Anbar province,
west of Baghdad, while a soldier died in an accident elsewhere, the
military said.

The Marine assigned to Multi-National Forces-West died Monday of wounds
sustained due to enemy action in the insurgent stronghold, which
stretches from Baghdad to the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

A 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) Soldier was killed in an
accident when a Humvee rolled over northwest of Nasiriyah, 200 miles
southeast of Baghdad.

The troops' identities were not released pending notification of relatives.

The deaths raises to at least 3,086 members of the U.S. military have
died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an
Associated Press count.