BASRA, Iraq - Iraqi soldiers and police fought running battles with gunmen from a Shia cult in two southern cities on Friday in which at least 14 people were killed and scores wounded, officials said.Police said the head of the so-called ‘Soldiers of Heaven’ cult in Basra had been killed in the fighting, which is reminiscent of clashes between the obscure group and Iraqi and US forces a year ago. Those battles near the holy Shia city of Najaf left hundreds dead, mainly members of the cult. The latest clashes are the biggest test yet for Iraq’s army and police in the country’s south since Britain finished handing back responsibility for security in the region last month.
Major-General Abdul Jalil Khalaf, the Basra provincial police chief, told Reuters that ‘tens’ of people had been killed or detained in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, where gunmen staged a series of hit-and-run raids using heavy machineguns. Khalaf did not give a breakdown of the death toll, but he said it included the head of the ‘Soldiers of Heaven’ in the city. Police said the confirmed death toll was four.
| Head, as in severed? |
‘Fierce clashes are taking place between the security forces and gunmen in central Basra,’ Khalaf told Reuters. ‘They have been attacking security forces and disappearing,’ he said, adding that Iraqi military helicopters had been called in to hunt for the gunmen.
Police in Basra and Nassiriya said fighters from the ‘Soldiers of Heaven’ cult, once led by a man who claimed to be the mahdi, an Islamic messiah-like figure, had opened fire on security forces in both cities.