The leader of an Iraqi cult who claimed to be the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure in Islam, 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 the Shi'ite holy city may be among the casualties, Shirwan al-Waeli said. All those people not killed were in detention, many of them wounded.
Iraqi troops, backed by US forces, confronted the group after learning it was planning an attack on the Shi'ite clerical establishment in Najaf yesterday.
"One of the signs of the coming of the Mahdi was to be the killing of the Ulema (hierarchy) in Najaf," Mr 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 Shi'ite Muslims massed in the area to commemorate Ashura, the highpoint of their religious calendar, amid fears of attacks by Sunni Arab insurgents linked to al Qaeda.
But Sunday's battle involved a group of a different sort, a cult which Iraqi officials said included both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims as well as foreigners.
"He claimed to be the Mahdi," Mr 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," Mr Waeli said.
The final death toll, estimated by other Iraqi officials at 300 gunmen, was still being calculated, Mr Waeli said, putting the initial figure at about 200. Searchers were still scouring the area where US tanks, helicopters and jets reinforced Iraqi troops during some 24 hours of fighting.
Though Sunnis and Shi'ites are engaged in an embryonic sectarian civil war in Iraq, there have been instances in Islamic history where groups drawn from both communities have challenged the authority of the existing clerical leadership.
The US military declined to provide details. It officially handed over responsibility for Najaf province, in southern Iraq, to Iraqi security forces last month and withdrew most US troops, to be recalled only to help in emergencies.
A government statement said the group was planning "a dangerous criminal act" in Najaf.
"An ideologically perverted group... tried to insult an Islamic holy symbol, the Imam Mahdi, and use him as an ideological base to recruit followers," the statement said. Mr Waeli said the death toll among Iraqi forces was around 10 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 US 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," Mr 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," Mr Waeli said, adding: "Today was supposed to be the day of his coming."