Messianic Cult Cover-up for a Massacre?
Democracy Now! | 01.02.2007 21:55 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Terror War | World
Hundreds of people killed
There are new doubts about the US and Iraqi claim that the hundreds of people killed in a battle in Najaf over the weekend were members of a messianic cult. Reports indicate the official story might actually be a cover-up for a massacre. We speak with London Independent correspondent Patrick Cockburn and Dr. Amer Majeed, a doctor who treated the wounded.
There are new doubts about the US and Iraqi claim that the hundreds of people killed in a battle in Najaf over the weekend were members of a messianic cult. Journalist Patrick Cockburn of the London Independent reports the official story might actually be a cover-up for a massacre.
Patrick Cockburn. Journalist with the London Independent and author of the new book, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq. He joins us on the phone from Amman, Jordan where he has just arrived from Baghdad.
Dr. Amer Majeed. He is an Iraqi doctor at Al Sadr hospital in Najaf. He has treated some of the injured from the battle in Najaf. He is being translated by his cousin, Sami Rasouli.
JUAN GONZALEZ: There are new doubts about the US and Iraqi claim that the hundreds of people killed in a battle in Najaf over the weekend were members of a messianic cult. Journalist Patrick Cockburn of the London Independent reports the official story might actually be a cover-up for a massacre.
AMY GOODMAN: Patrick Cockburn is author of the new book, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq. He has just left Iraq and joins us on the phone from Amman, Jordan. Patrick, welcome to Democracy Now! What did you learn about what happened in Najaf?
PATRICK COCKBURN: It’s a very confused situation. One of the really amazing things about it is that this is one of the greatest uses of US air power for two-and-a-half years since the battle for Fallujah, and we don't quite know who was under attack, although some 300 people were killed. It appears that there was a battle there with a sect that was disliked by the local government in Najaf, but also that a tribe, pilgrims who were marching through the area, also came under attack and suffered heavy losses. All in all, it’s a very confused situation.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And the sect was a Shia sect that was from another part of the country going on pilgrimage?
PATRICK COCKBURN: No. That’s not -- I mean, there are allegations flying backwards and forwards at the moment, but there’s no real evidence for this. I mean, the commonsense explanation, the explanation that, as some people there give, is that there was a tribe called the Al-Hawatim, who were going on pilgrimage -- this is a great Shia ritual this week, the Ashura -- and about 200 of them were walking, which is very common in Iraq. Over this last week, millions of people have been walking the roads on pilgrimage. And they got mixed up in this battle. Their tribal leader was ill. He and his wife were in a car. When they came to a checkpoint, the soldiers at checkpoint opened fire, killed them both. And then the other tribesmen attacked the checkpoint. It seems to me likely that the pilgrims got involved in a battle that was already going on between the government of Najaf and this sect, which they much disliked, which had a camp just outside Najaf.
AMY GOODMAN: Patrick Cockburn, what was the role of the US? A helicopter got shot down.
PATRICK COCKBURN: A helicopter got shot down. There was heavy bombing. And that seems to explain the very heavy casualties of the people there: upwards of 300 killed, many wounded. Only eleven Iraqi soldiers were killed, and twenty-seven wounded. So the casualties are very one-sided. So the key to this battle seems to be very heavy use of US air power. But it’s still unclear who the victims were on the ground.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Of course, the initial reports here in the US press have been that this was a calculated and premeditated attack on a large scale. So this scenario would directly contradict those reports.
PATRICK COCKBURN: Yes. And I think it’s very difficult to maintain the theory that there was this bunch of conspirators that were about to attack Najaf and murder all the religious leaders there. The governor of Najaf, Asaad Abu Gilel, has actually said now that he -- his council had a convened secret meeting and made a decision to attack people who he describes as outlaws. So, even those who carried out the attack are no longer insisting that they discovered a conspiracy at the last minute and they were able to nip it in the bud. They’ve completely changed their story.
AMY GOODMAN: Patrick Cockburn, we want to bring into this discussion Dr. Amer Majeed. He’s an Iraqi doctor at Al Sadr hospital in Najaf. He has treated some of the injured from this attack. He is being translated by his cousin, Sami Rasouli. Dr. Majeed, what did you see in the hospital? What do you understand happened?
DR. AMER MAJEED: [translated] On the 27th of January, early in the morning, which is the seventh of Ashura, we were at home before I went to work. We heard heavy bombing repeatedly, and also we heard an air force, the US Air Force, flying over the house. I called somebody that I know working in the security police in Najaf. I was told that there were some tourists in Al-Zarqa area, which is about ten kilometers far from the center of the city of Najaf. And he was rushed to close the line, hang up.
At 8:00 p.m., I went to the hospital as usual to work. I noticed right away preparations to receive injured and casualties from the fighting. About 10:00 p.m., we received injured individuals from the police and also the Iraqi National Guard.
During the treatment of the injured, I was able to ask one of them about what happened. He said -- the individual -- that after midnight we received information there are some armed individuals, fighters in the Al-Zarqa area, and they intended to come to Najaf during the tenth of Ashura and assault the religious figures in the town. When some of us tried to go there and fight them back, while we were facing them, we were under heavy attack, heavy fire. And it was a different and new arsenal of weapons. There were numbers of Iraqi National Guards and security police got injured and killed. And a major of six stars was injured, who was leading our group. Then, we were ordered to withdraw, and the US Air Force was called upon to come and help.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Doctor, were you able to ascertain, obviously, from the victims how many civilians -- what percentage may have been civilians who were injured in this conflict?
DR. AMER MAJEED: [translated] There are big numbers of civilians who got caught in this fight and got killed. There were many, many families who were in that area with the fighters. Those individuals, the family members, were brought into the hospital, and they were humanely treated.
AMY GOODMAN: Women and children?
DR. AMER MAJEED: [translated] Some of the children, not a big number. They were accompanied with their families.
AMY GOODMAN: And women?
SAMI RASOULI: Would you speak up, please?
AMY GOODMAN: And women, Sami?
DR. AMER MAJEED: [translated] Yes. Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Dr. Amer Majeed, I want to thank you for being with us; Sami Rasouli, for translating, Iraqi American currently back living in Najaf; and Patrick Cockburn, journalist with the London Independent.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/01/1530252
There are new doubts about the US and Iraqi claim that the hundreds of people killed in a battle in Najaf over the weekend were members of a messianic cult. Journalist Patrick Cockburn of the London Independent reports the official story might actually be a cover-up for a massacre.
Patrick Cockburn. Journalist with the London Independent and author of the new book, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq. He joins us on the phone from Amman, Jordan where he has just arrived from Baghdad.
Dr. Amer Majeed. He is an Iraqi doctor at Al Sadr hospital in Najaf. He has treated some of the injured from the battle in Najaf. He is being translated by his cousin, Sami Rasouli.
JUAN GONZALEZ: There are new doubts about the US and Iraqi claim that the hundreds of people killed in a battle in Najaf over the weekend were members of a messianic cult. Journalist Patrick Cockburn of the London Independent reports the official story might actually be a cover-up for a massacre.
AMY GOODMAN: Patrick Cockburn is author of the new book, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq. He has just left Iraq and joins us on the phone from Amman, Jordan. Patrick, welcome to Democracy Now! What did you learn about what happened in Najaf?
PATRICK COCKBURN: It’s a very confused situation. One of the really amazing things about it is that this is one of the greatest uses of US air power for two-and-a-half years since the battle for Fallujah, and we don't quite know who was under attack, although some 300 people were killed. It appears that there was a battle there with a sect that was disliked by the local government in Najaf, but also that a tribe, pilgrims who were marching through the area, also came under attack and suffered heavy losses. All in all, it’s a very confused situation.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And the sect was a Shia sect that was from another part of the country going on pilgrimage?
PATRICK COCKBURN: No. That’s not -- I mean, there are allegations flying backwards and forwards at the moment, but there’s no real evidence for this. I mean, the commonsense explanation, the explanation that, as some people there give, is that there was a tribe called the Al-Hawatim, who were going on pilgrimage -- this is a great Shia ritual this week, the Ashura -- and about 200 of them were walking, which is very common in Iraq. Over this last week, millions of people have been walking the roads on pilgrimage. And they got mixed up in this battle. Their tribal leader was ill. He and his wife were in a car. When they came to a checkpoint, the soldiers at checkpoint opened fire, killed them both. And then the other tribesmen attacked the checkpoint. It seems to me likely that the pilgrims got involved in a battle that was already going on between the government of Najaf and this sect, which they much disliked, which had a camp just outside Najaf.
AMY GOODMAN: Patrick Cockburn, what was the role of the US? A helicopter got shot down.
PATRICK COCKBURN: A helicopter got shot down. There was heavy bombing. And that seems to explain the very heavy casualties of the people there: upwards of 300 killed, many wounded. Only eleven Iraqi soldiers were killed, and twenty-seven wounded. So the casualties are very one-sided. So the key to this battle seems to be very heavy use of US air power. But it’s still unclear who the victims were on the ground.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Of course, the initial reports here in the US press have been that this was a calculated and premeditated attack on a large scale. So this scenario would directly contradict those reports.
PATRICK COCKBURN: Yes. And I think it’s very difficult to maintain the theory that there was this bunch of conspirators that were about to attack Najaf and murder all the religious leaders there. The governor of Najaf, Asaad Abu Gilel, has actually said now that he -- his council had a convened secret meeting and made a decision to attack people who he describes as outlaws. So, even those who carried out the attack are no longer insisting that they discovered a conspiracy at the last minute and they were able to nip it in the bud. They’ve completely changed their story.
AMY GOODMAN: Patrick Cockburn, we want to bring into this discussion Dr. Amer Majeed. He’s an Iraqi doctor at Al Sadr hospital in Najaf. He has treated some of the injured from this attack. He is being translated by his cousin, Sami Rasouli. Dr. Majeed, what did you see in the hospital? What do you understand happened?
DR. AMER MAJEED: [translated] On the 27th of January, early in the morning, which is the seventh of Ashura, we were at home before I went to work. We heard heavy bombing repeatedly, and also we heard an air force, the US Air Force, flying over the house. I called somebody that I know working in the security police in Najaf. I was told that there were some tourists in Al-Zarqa area, which is about ten kilometers far from the center of the city of Najaf. And he was rushed to close the line, hang up.
At 8:00 p.m., I went to the hospital as usual to work. I noticed right away preparations to receive injured and casualties from the fighting. About 10:00 p.m., we received injured individuals from the police and also the Iraqi National Guard.
During the treatment of the injured, I was able to ask one of them about what happened. He said -- the individual -- that after midnight we received information there are some armed individuals, fighters in the Al-Zarqa area, and they intended to come to Najaf during the tenth of Ashura and assault the religious figures in the town. When some of us tried to go there and fight them back, while we were facing them, we were under heavy attack, heavy fire. And it was a different and new arsenal of weapons. There were numbers of Iraqi National Guards and security police got injured and killed. And a major of six stars was injured, who was leading our group. Then, we were ordered to withdraw, and the US Air Force was called upon to come and help.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Doctor, were you able to ascertain, obviously, from the victims how many civilians -- what percentage may have been civilians who were injured in this conflict?
DR. AMER MAJEED: [translated] There are big numbers of civilians who got caught in this fight and got killed. There were many, many families who were in that area with the fighters. Those individuals, the family members, were brought into the hospital, and they were humanely treated.
AMY GOODMAN: Women and children?
DR. AMER MAJEED: [translated] Some of the children, not a big number. They were accompanied with their families.
AMY GOODMAN: And women?
SAMI RASOULI: Would you speak up, please?
AMY GOODMAN: And women, Sami?
DR. AMER MAJEED: [translated] Yes. Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Dr. Amer Majeed, I want to thank you for being with us; Sami Rasouli, for translating, Iraqi American currently back living in Najaf; and Patrick Cockburn, journalist with the London Independent.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/01/1530252
Democracy Now!
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
Waco, Iraq-style
01.02.2007 22:59
Geopolitical Diary: Deciphering the An Najaf Battle
January 31, 2007 0300 GMT
An Iraqi Shiite messianic group the government has labeled a cult, and which Baghdad says fought with U.S. and Iraqi troops over the weekend near An Najaf, issued a statement saying it was not engaged in the battle that resulted in the deaths of 250 militants and the cult's leader. Cult spokesman Abdul Imam Jaabar said the cult is peaceful, denying that it has ties to the "Soldiers of Heaven," which the Iraqi government said plotted to kill senior Shiite clerics. Jabbar said cult leader Imam Ahmed al-Hassan al-Yamani is a civil engineer who founded the group in 1999 after proclaiming he had met the messiah-like figure Mahdi, who declared him his grandson; Jabbar says al-Hassan quickly gained a following in southern Iraq of around 5,000 people.
This denial has triggered great speculation about the government's version of what actually happened. An Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said at least 263 Shiite fighters were killed, 502 arrested and another 210 people injured. Iraqi government officials say security forces launched the operation against the cult, which consists of fanatical Shiite and al Qaeda-linked Sunni militants, to prevent it from executing a plot to assassinate senior Shiite clerics. According to an understanding among Shiite Muslims, killing clerics is supposed to hasten the coming of Mahdi. When Iraqi forces were overwhelmed with the cult's firepower they had to call in U.S. ground support.
Not only is this perhaps the most bizarre incident in almost four years of incessant violence that has ravaged the country, the government's version of what allegedly transpired raises more questions than provides answers.
* How could a cult evolve into such a major threat without getting noticed?
* If this was an obscure cult, why were government forces unable to deal with it on their own?
* From where did the group acquire such a large cache of weaponry?
* Given the deep sectarian differences, how can extremist Shia and jihadists both be part of the group?
* Why would a Shiite religious group risk alienation by engaging in the murder of the clerical hierarchy, especially during the holy month of Muharram?
These and other such questions indicate the government is withholding a lot of information. However, Stratfor has received some information that provides insight into the circumstances leading up to the battle.
We are told the al-Hawatim tribe wanted to organize its own Karbala procession during Ashurah but that a rival group with considerable influence prevented it from doing so. A number of tribesmen were killed at a checkpoint operated by this influential group, including a senior tribal sheikh. The tribe then launched a retaliatory attack that led to the battle. The fact that a large number of those arrested are women and children lends some credence to the report that the fighting was related to Ashurah ceremonies.
Given the emotionally charged atmosphere during the Muharram ceremonies commemorating the martyrdom of the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and several other members of his family, why did this battle fail to disrupt the gatherings in An Najaf? Moreover, how was the violence contained?
Such a major battle could only be contained if it did not in fact occur in An Najaf. This raises doubts about the claims of a plot to kill senior clerics, which would require that the group be based inside the city. Additionally, a large force is not usually sent to carry out assassinations.
The report about a dispute over holding a procession suggests the group in question was engaged in a local power struggle. The Shiite establishment made up of the country's largest Shiite group, the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party, faces opposition from several groups at the provincial and district level in the Shiite south -- such as from the al-Sadrite Bloc, al-Fadhila and other smaller factions.
Regardless of its identity, the group in question likely wanted to use the occasion of Muharram to gain control over certain areas in the south. The government got wind of its plans and decided to pre-empt it. This would also explain the implausible official version, which was designed to justify the killing of fellow Shia during the holy month.
Reality notwithstanding, what is clear is that this incident proves what we have been saying about the Shiite community -- it is the most internally divided of the country's three major ethno-sectarian communities. The intra-Shiite divisions go far beyond the usual suspects -- a situation that bodes ill for the surge strategy of the Bush administration.
dp
Heres another slant
02.02.2007 00:24
Dingo
Government Lies Over Najaf 'Cult' Battle Exposed
02.02.2007 09:55
Og
Homepage:
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/47521/
Scream 'al-Qaeda!' and run for cover
05.02.2007 11:05
"So the pilgrims may have been killed by US air fire. But that does not explain the officially sanctioned released photos. Eerily, there are no signs of blood, bullet wounds or burning in these bodies."
A massacre and a new civil war By Pepe Escobar
dp