DAR AL ISLAM - IRAQ: JUND AL SAMAA LONGED FOR DOOMSDAY

Rebel Muslims longed for doomsday 'Heaven's Army' battled near Najaf with high-tech arms

Najaf, Iraq -- In a dark era plagued by war and confusion, a messiah rises from the sands of the desert promising to deliver the end of time. On the outskirts of a holy city, he gathers his fighters for the apocalypse. But his plan is betrayed.

By dawn, government soldiers surround him and his followers, killing him and hundreds of others.

The story line of the cult-like paramilitary -- known as the Jund al-Samaa, or "Soldiers of Heaven" or "Heaven's Army" -- and its leader, Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim, 37, seems to belong to a long-ago epoch.

But the Iraqi and U.S. soldiers fighting an intense battle against hundreds of disciples of the renegade Muslim group near the ancient city of Najaf on Sunday met a modern enemy, armed not only with an unorthodox religious fervor but also with high-tech weapons and walkie-talkies, according to Iraqi officials.

Details of the fighting remained sketchy and contradictory. But Sunday's battle illustrated how Iraq has become fertile ground for extremists of various stripes rather than the regional incubator for moderate movements envisioned by the war's U.S. architects.

On Monday, in its first detailed account, the U.S. military said more than 100 gunmen were captured during the battle, in which one American helicopter crashed, killing two U.S. service members aboard.

The U.S. account did not include details about the nature of the mysterious fighters, saying only that they were "militias."

More than 36 hours after the initial assault, estimates by Iraqi officials on the number of dead fighters varied from 150 to 400.

One U.S. adviser to Iraqi security forces cautioned against exaggerated casualty reports from the Iraqi government.

"There are rumors everywhere," he said. "The whole situation is so bizarre."

On Monday, Iraqi officials offered an extraordinary tale that, if true, would mean that a large, well-armed paramilitary unit grew right under the noses of the Iraqi security forces.

"How could that have been invisible?" asked the U.S. adviser.

...

Iraqi forces began casting a suspicious eye on the group at least 10 days ago. They sent infiltrators and received information that an attack by the group was imminent.

In their statement, Iraqi officials said they gave "a chance for this group to surrender," but the group did not comply.

Iraqi security forces said they surrounded the area and attacked the farms.

By striking preemptively, Iraqi security forces said they stopped a lethal, well-armed cult from carrying out a potentially devastating attack on Najaf's shrines and clerics.

U.S. officials, however, offered a significantly different account of how the fighting started. They said the heavily armed group struck first, using hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades to attack a convoy of Iraqi soldiers, police and commandos who had been sent to investigate the tip about an impending attack on Shiite pilgrims.

The fighters were holed up in elaborate trenches, Iraqi officials said. One Iraqi soldier said the group managed to break into the Iraqi army's radio frequency, using their own transmitters.

"It was obvious that they had good military training and big supplies of weapons," said the Iraqi statement. "They were ready for a war."


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