In the southern city of Basra, Police Chief Maj. Gen. Adil Dahham said his forces had arrested a leader of the "Soldiers of Heaven" cult that has carried out bloody attacks during the Shiite Ashura holiday the past two years.
Ashura, which falls on the 10th of Muharram under the Islamic lunar calendar — or Jan. 7 — is one of the most important holy days for Shiite Muslims. It marks the death of Islam's Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Hussein.
According Dahham, a man identified as Arshad Abid Dayem and four of his aides were arrested late Tuesday near the center of Iraq's second-largest city.
Dahham said police seized documents showing that the group planned to launch terrorist attacks in and around Karbala during Ashura. Karbala is home to the golden-domed mosques of Imam Hussein and his half-brother Imam Abbas, sons of the founding saint of the Shiite faith.
"The group has admitted during an investigation that they intended to carry out terrorist acts during Muharram days and particularly on the 10th of Muharram on Ashura," Dahham told The Associated Press. "They planned to carry out their acts against visitors in Karbala."
This arrest beats the battles fought with the cult this year and a big one in 2007. I wouldn't be surprised if Iran is providing help to the cult. Iran is quieter now because we defeated them and not because they don't want to undermine Iraq and perhaps seize control of southern Iraq.
Even if the war in Iraq is already won, that doesn't mean that violence in Iraq is over. But it does mean that Iraq can handle the internal threats with less and less help from America. In ten years, Iraq could handle external threats, too.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Hope is fragile in the Middle East and change takes time.
