US military still probing Iraqi cult battle

BAGHDAD, Feb 2 (Reuters) The US military said today it was still investigating who its troops and Iraq's security forces fought last weekend in clashes in which hundreds of people were killed.

The Iraqi government's account of the battle near the holy city of Najaf has generated conspiracy theories among bloggers sceptical of its suggestion that those killed were members of a messianic Muslim cult plotting to kill top Shi'ite clerics.

''We are investigating who we engaged there. We are not going to say anything as there is still an ongoing investigation,'' U.S.

military spokesman Major Steven Lamb told Reuters, adding that this was standard practice after any major engagement.

But a week after the battle amid orchards and houses north of Najaf, mystery shrouds exactly who the fighters were and what triggered the day-long battle in which a US attack helicopter was shot down, killing its two crew.

Hundreds of people arrested in the aftermath, including women and children, are under guard. Journalists were not allowed to visit the scene of the fighting until yesterday, four days after the battle, and only then accompanied by soldiers.

Iraqi officials say a dozen members of the Iraqi security forces were killed, along with 260 followers of the group they said called itself ''Soldiers of Heaven''.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh showed film footage of what he said was the body of the group's leader, Dhia al-Garrawi, who had proclaimed himself the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure in Islam.

On Sunday, shortly after the battle began, Iraqi officials spoke of gunmen wearing camouflage uniforms and said they were followers of Ahmed al-Hassan al-Yamani, another charismatic leader with a large following in Basra who styles himself the messenger of the Mahdi.

Film footage from the scene of the fighting showed a score or more bodies dumped in a large room and dozens of others scattered about the compound. All were wearing civilian clothes. A large group of survivors including women and children were shown surrounded by U.S. and Iraqi troops.

The compound was littered with burnt-out vehicles, including pickup trucks mounted with machineguns, an armoured Humvee and a troop-carrier. Buildings had been sprayed with machinegun fire.

FIERCE BATTLE The scene of devastation appeared to point to a fierce battle in which attack helicopters, jet fighters and tanks are known to have taken part. But what is still missing is an explanation of what triggered the explosion of violence.

''It is ... disconcerting (and indeed suspect) that no convincing account of events should be available almost a week after an incident that involved such a huge amount of Iraqi as well as American military power,'' Oslo-based historian Reidar Visser said on his Iraqi history Web site historiae.org ''It would make sense for the government to talk up the affair, also with the aim of galvanising internal Shi'ite solidarity and thereby sending a signal to internal dissenters.'' One popular theory on the Internet is that it was sparked by a clash between a Shi'ite tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint that then drew in Garrawi's followers.

Ahmed al-Hassan's group, which has no record of violence, has also distanced itself from the fighting, saying it is peaceful and accusing the Iraqi government of victimising it.

Hassan has not been seen since the fighting and is reported to be on the run, but initial suggestions by some Iraqi officials that he and Dhia Garrawi were one and the same person now appear to have been scotched.

Reuters today obtained a video showing Garrawi's brother, Riyadh, being interrogated apparently by Iraqi army intelligence.

In the video, Riyadh, who was captured after the fighting on Sunday, is heard saying that the family was from Daghara near Najaf and that his brother, a former youth centre worker, had developed a following after proclaiming an ability to heal the sick in 1989.

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