US-backed Iraqi troops put a new security plan to the test as public opposition to the Iraq war mounts in America, writes Salah Hemeid As millions of Iraqi Shias continued this week ceremonies marking Ashoura, a religious event that commemorates the seventh century death of Imam Hussein, Iraq witnessed one of its bloodiest days in four years. About 300 militants were reportedly killed Sunday as US-backed Iraqi forces engaged in a day-long battle near the holy city of Najaf. It was the deadliest battles in Iraq since the US-led invasion in spring 2003, and was the first major fight for Iraqi forces in Najaf since they took over control of security in the province from the Americans in December. It is not clear what had triggered the fight, but Iraqi officials said it aimed at preventing attacks on Shia pilgrims during Ashoura in Najaf and nearby Karbala. The governor of Najaf, Asaad Abu Ghulal, said the fighters who took refuge in orchards were Iraqi and foreign, some wearing the brown, white and maroon regalia of Pakistani and Afghan fighters. He said they had come to assassinate Shia clerics and attack religious convoys that were gathering in Najaf and Karbala ahead of Ashoura, which culminated Monday night. He said the fighters called themselves Jund Al-Samaa, or Soldiers of Heaven, and seemed to be part of a wider effort to disrupt Ashoura. The exact affiliation of the group was unclear but it seems that they belong to a Sunni-baked Shia splinter group that competes with main Shia parties in the government. Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said the groups appeared to have had links to Saddam Hussein's loyalists and foreign fighters. In Karbala, police said they arrested three men -- a Saudi, an Afghan and a Moroccan -- who were found on the road between Najaf and Karbala with a suicide bomb belt and explosives in their car. The police officials said the car had been hollowed out so it could be used as a car bomb. Several failed attempts to attack Shia ceremonies were also reported in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Diyalah. Elsewhere in Iraq, the drumbeat of daily violence continued. In Baghdad, at least four mortar shells struck a secondary school for girls Sunday, killing five pupils and wounding 20 in the mostly Sunni populated Al-Adil district. Witnesses at Al-Khaloud School said shells pounded the schoolyard when pupils were gathered for a break. Also in Baghdad, 54 bodies were found, many showing signs of torture. A bomb inside a minibus exploded in a Shia area of the capital killing one and wounding five. Later, in the Sunni area of Yarmouk in western Baghdad, gunmen killed four people, including a consultant with the Ministry of Industry and his daughter, shot on their way to work. After dark Sunday night, residents of the Yarmouk neighbourhood reported heavy clashes, with gun and mortar fire raining down for hours. In Kirkuk, two car bombs at a Kurdish car dealership and a Kurdish market killed at least 17 people. The Najaf battle underscores the challenges facing Iraqi security forces and their US backers. A troop surge declared by US President George W Bush is intended to focus on Baghdad and Anbar province, but Sunday's events proved that they are not the only perilous regions of Iraq. Bringing the situation to heel will be the daunting task Lt General David Petraeus, who was confirmed by the Senate last Friday to become the top US commander in Iraq, will face when he arrives in Baghdad next week to take over from General George Casey. The White House wanted Petraeus to go to Baghdad as quickly as possible to begin implementing the new US strategy for stabilising the strife-torn country. The timing of Petraeus' takeover in Baghdad became linked to the debate in Congress over proposed resolutions expressing opposition to President Bush's decision to send another 21,500 US troops to Iraq. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that such a resolution would amount to undercutting Petraeus and emboldening insurgents and other hostile forces. Last week the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee delivered a stinging rebuke to President Bush for his Iraq policy, condemning his plan to pour more American troops into the war-ravaged country, where chaos and violence continue to worsen by the day. Its resolution, which was approved by a 12 to nine vote, came only two days after Bush's State of the Union address, in which he pleaded with the American people to give his plan a chance to work. The committee's resolution now moves to the Senate floor for full debate, possibly as early as next week. The debate is likely to be rough going for Bush's plan in a Senate now controlled by the opposition Democratic Party. Making the debate even a rockier ride for Bush's plan, public opposition in the United States to the war in Iraq is mounting. On Saturday, tens of thousands participated in an anti-war rallies in Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento, protesting President Bush's plan to send additional American troops to Iraq. In Washington, an anti-war rally evoked memories of the Vietnam War over 30 years ago. Veterans and military families joined select politicians, peace groups and actors, including Vietnam War protester Jane Fonda, to urge Congress and President Bush to stop funding the war and pull US troops out of Iraq. "Silence is no longer an option," Fonda said to a cheering crowd. Meanwhile, Iran has announced its plans to expand ties with the Iraqi government at a time when US troops are trying to reverse Iranian influence in Iraq, widely seen as destabilising. In an interview with The New York Times, Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi Qumi, said his government plans to offer Iraqi government forces training, equipment and advisers for what he called "the security fight". The offer portends to bring Iran into further conflict with US forces, which have detained a number of Iranian operatives in recent weeks and say they have evidence of Iranian complicity in attacks on American and Iraqi forces. Bush said he would respond "firmly" if Iran steps up "military action" in Iraq in a way that hurts US troops or Iraqi civilians. With the war now bound in political knots in Baghdad, Washington, Tehran and across the region, and the insurgency increasingly turning into sectarian strife, the fight in Baghdad, as in the rest of Iraq, is far from over. Without an assertive political strategy that can be sold to all Iraqi factions, Bush's new plan, widely seen as his last chance in Iraq, could become a blueprint for chaos.
