Cult clash kills at least 80 in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Members of an obscure messianic cult fought pitched battles Friday with Iraqi security forces in two southern cities, leaving at least 80 people dead, injuring scores and spreading panic among worshipers marking Shiite Islam's holiest holiday.

The clashes, which erupted as worshipers marched, chanted and beat their chests in Basra and Nasiriya, represented the first major test for Iraqi security forces since Britain completed a transfer of responsibility for security in the region in December.

Members of the cult, which calls itself the Supporters of Mahdi, mingled with the crowds in at least three sections of Basra and in Nasiriya, then fired shots at worshipers and the security forces, police and witnesses said.

Police said the cult's leader, Ahmed Hassan Yamani, was killed along with nearly 50 followers in the fighting in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. About 60 gunmen were arrested and large quantities of weapons were seized from a mosque linked to the group, said the Basra police chief, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Kareem Khalaf.

About 20 other gunmen were killed in Nasiriya, police said. At least 10 policemen in Nasiriya and four in Basra were also among the dead, and at least 90 people were injured in the two cities, they said.

The Supporters of Mahdi is named after a ninth-century imam, considered by Shiites to be a saint and the last of the prophet Muhammad's true heirs. Imam Mahdi went into hiding in 878, and Shiites believe that he will return, along with Jesus, to lead Muslims in a struggle for justice.

Southern Iraq, which is overwhelmingly Shiite, is home to a number of small doomsday-style cults that believe they can hasten the return of Imam Mahdi by spreading chaos.

"The situation in Nasiriya is really concerning and frightening," said Naeem Enad, a college student hunkered down in his home as shots echoed in the distance. "I heard from one of the rapid-response individuals that they (the sect) are not more than 100 people, however their creed is to fight to the death."

Fearful that the bloodshed could spread, authorities imposed indefinite curfews in Basra, Nasiriya and the holy city of Najaf.

Last January, U.S. and Iraqi forces fought and killed hundreds of members of the Soldiers of Heaven, a messianic group they alleged was plotting attacks on the Shiite religious leadership in Najaf. The group's leader, Dhyaa Abdul-Zahra, claimed to be Mahdi and was killed in the fighting.

The Supporters of Mahdi believe their leader is Mahdi's son, but it was not immediately clear whether the two groups are linked. Last month, security forces detained 12 Supporters of Mahdi in Basra, eight in Nasiriya and one of their leaders in Najaf, police said.

In an unrelated attack, at least two Iraqis were killed and four injured when a bomb exploded Friday as a U.S. convoy drove through the north Baghdad neighborhood of Ur, police said. The convoy escaped unharmed.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, gunmen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pinned down National Security Adviser Muwaffak Rubaie inside a mosque in the northeast neighborhood of Shula, a stronghold of al-Sadr.