SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2008
9:38 MECCA TIME, 6:38 GMT
Many dead in southern Iraq clashes
Shias in their hundreds of thousands crowded the
streets of Karbala to mark Ashura [AFP]
The Iraqi government says it has seized full control
of Basra and Nasiriya after bloody clashes between the
police and armed men from a messianic cult, that left
nearly 50 people dead and another 100 wounded.
Iraqi authorities said at least 36 people were
reported killed in Basra, Iraq's second largest city,
and up to 10 in Nasiriya, where witnesses said US-led
fighter jets and helicopter gunships targeted a police
station seized by the cult's supporters.
Violent clashes broken out in the two cities at around
mid-day on Friday between members of the Soldiers of
Heaven cult and Iraq's security forces, police said.
Police attacked
Policemen and women were among those killed or wounded
in Nasiriya, about 350km south of the capital Baghdad,
according to the director-general of health, Hadi
al-Ramahi.
Bodies of Shia fighters lay
in the streets in Basra [AFP]
In Basra, Major Abdul Jalil Khalaf, the police chief,
said fighting took place in three-quarters of the city
between the security forces and members of the
Soldiers of Heaven.
Police said men attacked the police headquarters in
al-Tamimiya neighbourhood as clashes spread to a
number of districts in Basra's city centre.
An indefinite curfew was immediately placed on the
city by Iraqi authorities.
Friday's fighting came as Shias across Iraq marked
Ashura, one of the holiest days in Shia Islam, when
they commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein by armies
of Yazid in 680.
Basra's police chief said the fighting by the Soldiers
of Heaven was being led by Ahmed al-Hassani Al-Yamani.
Yamani claims to be an ambassador of Imam Mahdi, an
eighth century imam who vanished as a boy and whom
Shias believe will return to bring justice to the
world.
During Ashura in 2007, the Soldiers of Heaven clashed
with US and Iraqi forces outside the holy cities of
Najaf and Karbala.
Last year's fighting left 263 members of the sect
dead, including their leader, Dhia Abdul Zahra Kadhim
al-Krimawi, also known as Abu Kamar.
Security measures
Hundreds of thousands of people crowded the streets of
Karbala for the ceremonies on Friday, which reach
their peak on Saturday.
The shrine city, around 110km south of Baghdad, was
under a tight security cordon, with around 20,000
security force members deployed.
Ashura ceremonies have been targeted by Sunni groups
in the past and on Thursday eight people were killed
when a suicide bomber blew himself up during a
procession outside a mosque in Baquba, 60km north of
Baghdad.
British forces handed over control of the oil-rich
province of Basra to Iraqi forces in mid-December,
amid warnings that it could descend into violent turf
wars between Shia groups.
Source: Agencies
---------------
Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo
Allah yang disembah orang Islam tipikal dan yang digambarkan oleh al-Mushaf itu
dungu, buas, kejam, keji, ganas, zalim lagi biadab hanyalah Allah fiktif.
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