Questions remain in wake of Iraq battle

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/16574604.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A mysterious group of religious zealots who fought a fierce battle with American and Iraqi troops on Sunday were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and five anti-aircraft machine guns rigged on tractors - raising questions about how a group with no known ties to Iraq's current cast of political organizations came to be so well equipped and trained.

"They fought according to a military arrangement, and they moved as platoons and companies," Abdul Hussein Abtan, the deputy governor of Najaf, said Monday.

Ali Nomas, a spokesman for the security forces in Najaf, said the militants, who numbered from 1,000 to 1,500, had purchased farms and surrounded them with a dirt barricade and a bulldozed trench. More than 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 700 rocket-propelled grenades were recovered after the battle, Nomas said.

Among the 300 or so militants killed in Sunday's fighting was the group's leader, Iraqi authorities said. As many as 400 others were arrested, including some dressed as Afghan fighters, Iraqi spokesmen said. U.S. officials put the number of arrests at more than 100.

[Tin Man]

1. For the new Iraq, sounds like an average day.

especially the confusion regarding the who, what, where, when, and why - of the mayhem.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Just maybe the whole thing never happened.

[NNN0LHI]

4. I read or heard somewhere the number of dead bad guys was determined by...

...the amount of ordinance our forces expended.

I still suspect someone in Hollywood is writing the scripts for these "news" stories.

Don

[oblivious]

3. Questions? I guess so! 2000 AK47s? 700 rocket-propelled grenades?

And that's for a no-name, previously unknown group. Imagine what the real resistance has.