IRAQ:Iraqi soldiers and police fought running battles with gunmen from a Shia cult in two southern cities yesterday in which dozens of people were killed and nearly 100 wounded, officials said.
Police said the head of the so-called "Soldiers of Heaven" cult in Basra had been killed in the fighting, which recalls 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 south since Britain finished handing back responsibility for security in the oil-rich region last month.
Maj-Gen Abdul Jalil Khalaf, the Basra provincial police chief, said dozens of people had been killed in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, where gunmen staged a series of hit-and-run raids using heavy machine guns.
Gen Khalaf did not give a precise number of those killed during several hours of fighting, but he said it included the head of the "Soldiers of Heaven" in the city.
Fifteen people, including a police major-general and two colonels, were killed in the city of Nassiriya, officials said. Hospital officials said 82 people had been wounded.
Witnesses said gunmen from the "Soldiers of Heaven" attacked four police stations in the city.
"The area (in Basra) where the clashes took place is under the control of the Iraqi security forces except for a few streets," said Gen Khalaf, who earlier said Iraqi military helicopters had been called in to hunt for gunmen.
Police said the gunmen in both cities were supporters of Ahmed Hassani al-Yemeni, who took over after the cult's previous leader was killed in battles with security forces a year ago.
Those clashes near Najaf turned out to be one of the largest battles since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
A man who said he was from the movement told Reuters in Basra that their fighters had decided to attack security forces yesterday because of persecution he said the cult had suffered. He also said they believed the mahdi would appear. The previous cult leader, who used the name Mahdi bin Ali bin Ali bin Abi Taleb, had claimed to be the mahdi.
Religious pilgrims have been gathering in Kerbala all week for Ashura, which commemorates the death in battle of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, near the city 1,300 years ago.
Imam Hussein's death in 680 entrenched the schism between Shia and Sunni Muslims over who they recognised as the successors of Mohammed.