Violence left nearly 50 people dead in two major southern cities when members of a shadowy, messianic cult attacked police and fellow Shiite worshippers -- a year after a similar plot was foiled during Shiite Islam's most important holiday.
Iraqi authorities said at least 36 people were reported killed in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, and at least 10 in Nasiriyah, where witnesses said US-led coalition jet fighters and helicopter gunships on Friday targeted a police station seized by cult gunmen.
US military spokesman Major Brad Leighton said jet fighters flew over the area in a show of force after the Iraqi's requested help, but no airstrikes occured. Some clashes raged into the night, raising the possibility of more casualties.
PHOTO: AP
The assaults were launched as hundreds of thousands of Shiites observed the Ashoura holiday by marching, singing and beating their chests to honor the martyrdom of their most beloved saint. Followers of the cult -- the Soldiers of Heaven -- seek to speed the return of another Shiite figure known as a "Hidden Imam," who believers say will bring justice to the world.
There were conflicting accounts about how the attacks developed, but all signs pointed to the Soldiers of Heaven cult.
The group's bloody aims are seen as a bid to bring the return of the "Hidden Imam" -- also known as the Mahdi -- a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who disappeared as a child in the ninth century. Shiites believe he will return one day to bring justice to Earth.
Friday's attack began when militants carrying yellow flags or wearing yellow headbands, the cult's color, fired mortars at a police station in Nasiriyah, about 320km south of Baghdad. A shootout with police followed.
A police officer said at least 10 people were killed -- seven policemen, including two senior officers, two female civilians and one gunman. He also said more than 50 people were injured after gunmen stormed the building of a quick reaction force in the city.
Street battles also broke out in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, after cultists opened fire on a police patrol. Police torched a mosque belonging to the cult after militants fired at officers from inside, authorities said.
The militant cult members also shot at Shiite worshippers taking part in Ashoura observances, Basra Governor Mohammed al-Waili said. No injuries were reported.
"These terrorist groups have opened fire randomly on citizens and Shiite mourners and we are about to eliminate or arrest them," the governor said.
Basra police chief Major General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf said 30 militants and six security forces were killed. He also said 30 militants were detained.
Khalaf said the leader of the group in Basra, whom he identified as Abu Mustafa al-Ansari, was among those who died.
About eight hours after the clashes began, the government said Iraqi security forces had restored calm in the cities after "heretics" attacked Ashoura processions.
Iraqi authorities maintained tight security along roads into the Shiite holy city of Karbala, the center of the Ashoura observances, which have been going on for about a week in much of the country. Karbala, about 80km south of Baghdad, is home to the tomb of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson who was killed during a seventh century battle in the area.
Pilgrims lined up to be searched at the entrance of the twin shrines of Hussein and his brother Abbas, about 350m apart. The streets were lined with tents providing tea, milk, food and first aid. The climax of Ashoura -- a massive procession toward the golden-domed Imam Hussein shrine -- was held yesterday morning.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver