Cult leader killed in Najaf battle

Najaf: The leader of an Iraqi cult who claimed to be Imam Al Mehdi, known as the 'hidden Imam" among Shiites, was killed in a battle on Sunday near Najaf with hundreds of his followers, Iraq's national security minister said yesterday.

Women and children who joined 600-700 of his "Soldiers of Heaven" on the outskirts of Najaf may be among the casualties, Shirwan Al Waeli said. Those not killed were arrested, many wounded.

Iraqi troops, backed by US forces, confronted the group after learning it was planning an attack on the Shiite clerical establishment in Najaf.

"One of the signs of the coming of the Mehdi was to be the killing of the Ulema [hierarchy] in Najaf," Al Waeli said. "This was a perverse claim. No sane person could believe it."

Authorities have been on alert for days as hundreds of thousands of Shiites massed in the area to commemorate Ashura amid fears of attacks by Sunni insurgents linked to Al Qaida.

But Sunday's battle involved a group of a different sort, a cult which Iraqi officials said included both Sunni and Shiites as well as foreigners.

"He claimed to be the Mehdi," Al Waeli said of the cult's leader. He was believed to be a 40-year-old from the nearby Shiite city of Diwaniya.

The final death toll, estimated by other Iraqi officials at 300 gunmen, was still being calculated, Al Waeli said.