There are suspicions in Iraq that the official story of the battle outside Najaf between a messianic Iraqi cult and the Iraqi security forces supported by the US, in which 263 people were killed and 210 wounded, is a fabrication.

From The Independent (UK), January 31, 2007:

A picture is beginning to emerge of a clash between an Iraqi Shia tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint that led the US to intervene with devastating effect. The involvement of Ahmed al-Hassani (also known as Abu Kamar), who believed himself to be the coming Mahdi, or Messiah, appears to have been accidental.
The story emerging on independent Iraqi websites and in Arabic newspapers is entirely different from the government's account of the battle with the so-called "Soldiers of Heaven", planning a raid on Najaf to kill Shia religious leaders.
The cult denied it was involved in the fighting, saying it was a peaceful movement. The incident reportedly began when a procession of 200 pilgrims was on its way, on foot, to celebrate Ashura in Najaf. They came from the Hawatim tribe, which lives between Najaf and Diwaniyah to the south, and arrived in the Zarga area, one mile from Najaf at about 6am on Sunday. Heading the procession was the chief of the tribe, Hajj Sa'ad Sa'ad Nayif al-Hatemi, and his wife driving in their 1982 Super Toyota sedan because they could not walk. When they reached an Iraqi army checkpoint it opened fire, killing Mr Hatemi, his wife and his driver, Jabar Ridha al-Hatemi. The tribe, fully armed because they were travelling at night, then assaulted the checkpoint to avenge their fallen chief.

Members of another tribe called Khaza'il living in Zarga tried to stop the fighting but they themselves came under fire. Meanwhile, the soldiers and police at the checkpoint called up their commanders saying they were under attack from Al Qaeda with advanced weapons. Reinforcements poured into the area and surrounded the Hawatim tribe in the nearby orchards. The tribesmen tried - in vain - to get their attackers to cease fire.
American helicopters then arrived and dropped leaflets saying: "To the terrorists, surrender before we bomb the area." The tribesmen went on firing and a US helicopter was hit and crashed killing two crewmen. The tribesmen say they do not know if they hit it or if it was brought down by friendly fire. The US aircraft launched an intense aerial bombardment in which 120 tribesmen and local residents were killed by 4am on Monday.

The messianic group led by Ahmad al-Hassani, which was already at odds with the Iraqi authorities in Najaf, was drawn into the fighting because it was based in Zarga and its presence provided a convenient excuse for what was in effect a massacre. The Hawatim and Khaza'il tribes are opposed to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Dawa Party, who both control Najaf and make up the core of the Baghdad government.
This account cannot be substantiated and is drawn from the Healing Iraq website and the authoritative Baghdad daily Azzaman. But it would explain the disparity between the government casualties - less than 25 by one account - and the great number of their opponents killed and wounded. The Iraqi authorities have sealed the site and are not letting reporters talk to the wounded.

Sectarian killings across Iraq also marred the celebration of the Shia ritual of Ashura. A suicide bomber killed 23 worshippers and wounded 57 others in a Shia mosque in Balad Ruz. Not far away in Khanaqin, in Diyala, a bomb killed 13 people, including three women, and wounded 29 others. In east Baghdad mortar bombs killed 17 people.

Conspiracy Times additions:

Ashura is an important religious festival in the Islamic religious calendar. It remembers the mourning of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala. The day is of particular significance to Shi'a Muslims, with many Shiite making pilgrimages to the Mashhad al-Husayn, i.e. Husayn's tomb, in Karbala (Iraq). Foreign forces in Iraq were hopefully aware that large groups of people would move around the country for this festival. Hopefully, they also knew that Husayn's martyrdom is widely interpreted by Shiites as a symbol of the struggle against injustice, tyranny and oppression - and that aggression against the foreign troops could be expected.
The media is today so predisposed and conditioned that the mere mention of the word "cult" is sufficient for most to fall for the official line. Remember Waco? The Independent's story is far different from the traditional headline, which shouted "'Saviour' who led Shia faction wanted slaughter in holy city". The official storyline uses the old gimmick of the "cult leader", whether David Koresh, Luc Jouret, Marshall Herff Applewhite, Osama Bin Laden or Abu Kamar and how "blind" their followers are to fall for their lies. But whom the shoe fits...

It seems that Iraqi officials, including Assad Sultan Abu Klil, the governor of Najaf, have taken a page out of the "how to spread fear of cults amongst your people" from the Western world by claiming that the "cult" had a zero hour of 6am to carry out mass slaughter, when more than a million Shiites would be descending on Karbala for the festival. Stories that the cult had managed to acquire rocket-propelled grenades and five anti-aircraft machineguns should also be taken with a pinch of salt, as these were only based on the statement that such weapons had been used by the group to bring down the helicopter. Also, the official line of the incident may have been designed to portray US and Iraqi troops as the saviours of the Shiite pilgrims.

Of course, spreading distrust within Shiites of suicide cults hiding within their legions is well-practiced in the West, whether it are Christian fundamentalists in the US or Japan, or "new age cults". But the possibility that the leader was taken out on purpose at the checkpoint could be construed from the fact that after the publication of his book, Judge of Heaven, in early January 2007, all copies were confiscated. In fact, anyone who ever sold or even bought one, was arrested too! The leader made the claim that "I reveal and declare to you in this book my real identity that I am the Mahdi." There is little doubt that he had cultish ambitions and the question whether this was a "pre-emptive strike" should not be ruled out. But in the "democratic Iraq", surely religious freedom of expression should be maintained at all cost?

> For more on the Mahdi and how the role of this mythic hero is influencing Arab politics, see the March 18, 2007 issue of The Conspiracy Times REAL NEWSpaper.