Cult seeks to incite war among Shiites

Najaf: Security official Abu Ali has reviewed hundreds of documents about the obscure Messianic cult that incited a deadly clash last weekend at the height of Shiites' Ashura holiday.

The group, Abu Ali and other security and government officials say, wants to spark a war among Shiites.

Officials said Supporters of the Mahdi disrupted Shiite worshippers last weekend in Basra and Nasiriyah in violent outbreaks that left at least 80 people dead. In similar battles in January 2007, hundreds of members of the Heaven's Army cult were killed.

Najaf province spokesman Ahmad Da'aibil accused such groups of being terrorists whose aim is "to assassinate the clerics to shake security, stability and the political status of the government."

The extremists are not associated with Al Qaida but are a "real source of threat to the stability in southern Iraq," according to Major General Kevin Bergner, the US military spokesman in Iraq.

All week, police and soldiers have treated suspected members of Supporters of the Mahdi as dangerous criminals, raiding homes in the southern cities of Basra and Nasiriyah. More than 250 suspected group members have been detained.

Arms confiscated

Police cut off a border post and nabbed at least seven suspects headed towards Iran. Stockpiles of ammunition, weapons and explosives also have been confiscated.

Its bi-monthly newspaper, The Straight Path, expresses Messianic beliefs and suggests that Mahdi supporters must rise up and 'kill the enemies of God until God is pleased,' according to an article in the September 27 edition.

Abu Tabarak, who said he knows members of Supporters of the Mahdi, said he believes most of the group members are ethical - but close-minded - people.

Experts who study politics and religion in southern Iraq said the emergence of such groups underscores the struggle for power among Shiite leaders and the different ideologies within the religion.

No threat

If a leader like radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr somehow lost power, the door could open for these splinter groups, said Vali Nasr, an international politics professor and Iraq expert at Tufts University.

Reidar Visser, a historian and expert on southern Iraq who edits the website historiae.org, said he believes the Iraqi government is overreacting to a small minority group.

There has been no decisive proof that the Mahdists have risen in revolt, Visser said.

Abu Zainab Kanaani, leader of the Basra branch of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, said Supporters of the Mahdi does not pose a threat to Iraqi political leadership - today or in the future.

"This is a terrorist group," Kanaani said. "Their ideas and creed are far from the Iraqi reality and the Iraqi society."