Iraqi cult leader killed in battle-minister

BAGHDAD, Jan 29 (Reuters) The leader of an Iraqi cult who claimed to be the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure in Islam, was killed in a battle yesterday near Najaf with hundreds of his followers, Iraq's national security minister said today.

Women and children who had joined 600-700 of his fighters outside the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf may also be among the casualties, Shirwan al-Waeli told Reuters. All those who were not killed there were in detention, many of them wounded.

The final casualty toll, put by other Iraqi officials at 300 gunmen, was still being calculated, he said, putting the initial figure at about 200 militants. Searchers were still scouring the area where US tanks, helicopters and jets reinforced Iraqi troops during some 24 hours of fighting.

''He claimed to be the Mahdi,'' Waeli said of the cult's leader, adding that he had used the full name Mahdi bin Ali bin Ali bin Abi Taleb, claiming descent from the Prophet Mohammad.

He was believed to be a 40-year-old from the nearby Shi'ite city of Diwaniya: ''He was killed,'' Waeli said.

The group, which other Iraqi officials said included both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims as well as foreigners, had planned an attack on Monday on the Shi'ite clerical establishment in Najaf.

''One of the signs of the coming of the Mahdi was to be the killing of the Ulema (hierarchy) in Najaf,'' Waeli said.

Though Sunnis and Shi'ites are engaged in an embryonic sectarian civil war in Iraq, there have been instances in Islamic history where groups have drawn from both communities to challenge the authority of the existing clerical leadership.

Waeli said the death toll among Iraqi forces was around ten soldiers and police. Najaf's police chief was wounded, he said.

Two US soldiers were killed when their attack helicopter came down during the fighting, the military said. Iraqi officials and witnesses said it appeared to have been shot down.

Some of the fighters wore headbands describing themselves as ''Soldiers of Heaven'', Iraqi officials said. It was not clear how many women and children were present: ''It is very sad to bring families onto the battlefield,'' Waeli said.

When police first approached the camp and tried to call on the group to leave, their leader replied: ''I am the Mahdi and I want you to join me,'' Waeli said, adding: ''Today was supposed to be the day of his coming.'' Other Iraqi officials said on Sunday that a man named Ahmed Hassani al-Yemeni, who had been working from an office in Najaf until it was closed down earlier this month, had assembled the group, claiming to be the messenger of the Mahdi.

Among previous violent instances of people saying they were the Mahdi were an opposition movement to British imperial forces in Sudan in the 1880s and a group of several hundred, including women, that took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979.

REUTERS BDP BD1852