300 militants killed in Iraq battle

An Iraqi army source said US forces took control of the operation on Sunday and bombing continued in the area until well after dawn on Monday, which was the climax of Ashura, the highpoint of the Shi’ite religious calendar.

Two Americans were killed, the US military said on Sunday, when an attack helicopter went down during the battle that was one of the strangest incidents of the 4-year conflict. Iraqi officials said the helicopter seemed to have been shot down.

Police Colonel Ali Nomas said 300 to 350 gunmen had been killed in the operation and dozens more arrested. Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and six more missing, and five policemen were killed. Another 40 Iraqi police and soldiers were wounded.

According to one Iraqi political source, hundreds of fighters, drawn from both Sunni and Shi’ite communities, fought throughout Sunday and late into the night. A Reuters reporter at the scene, 160 km south of Baghdad, saw US tanks and heard blasts after dark on Sunday and an Iraqi officer said F-16 jets were bombing the area.

Details of the day’s fighting were sketchy and the origins of the fighters unclear. An Iraqi army source said some of the dead wore headbands declaring themselves a “Soldier of Heaven”. The political source said up to 1,000 fighters had been involved. An Iraqi army source said they wore camouflage and appeared well organised.

The US military officially handed over responsibility for Najaf province to Iraqi security forces last month, withdrawing most US troops, to be recalled only to help in emergencies.

Najaf governor Asaad Abu Gilel told Reuters the authorities had uncovered a plot to kill leading Shi’ite clerics in Najaf on Monday, to coincide with the climax of Ashura, the annual Shi’ite rite marking a 7th c battle which entrenched the schism between Shi’ite and Sunni Islam. “There is a conspiracy to kill the clergy on the 10th day of Muharram,” he said, referring to Monday by the Muslim calendar.