250 militants killed in day-long battle

US-backed Iraqi troops killed 250 insurgents allegedly plotting to kill pilgrims at a major Shiite Muslim religious festival during a day-long battle near Najaf.

A US helicopter crashed during yesterday’s fight, killing two American soldiers.

Authorities said Iraqi soldiers supported by US aircraft fought all day with a large group of fighters in the Zaraq area, about 12 miles north east of the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

Col Ali Nomas, spokesman for Iraqi security forces in Najaf, said more than 250 corpses had been found. Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Othman al-Ghanemi also spoke of 250 dead but said an exact number would not be released until today. He said 10 gunmen had been captured, including one Sudanese.

Provincial governor Assad Sultan Abu Kilel said the assault was launched because the insurgents planned to attack Shiite pilgrims and clerics during ceremonies marking Ashoura, the holiest day in the Shiite calendar commemorating the 7th century death of Imam Hussein. The celebration culminates on Tuesday in huge public processions in Karbala and other Shiite cities.

Officials were unclear about the religious affiliation of the militants. Although Sunni Arabs have been the main force behind insurgent groups, there are a number of Shiite militant and splinter groups that have clashed from time to time with the government.

Iraqi soldiers attacked at dawn and militants hiding in orchards fought back with automatic weapons, sniper rifles and rockets, the governor said. He said the insurgents were members of a previously unknown group called the Army of Heaven.

“They are well-equipped and they even have anti-aircraft missiles,” the governor said. “They are backed by some locals” loyal to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

Abu Kilel said two Iraqi policemen were killed and 15 wounded, but there was no word on other Iraqi government casualties.

A US statement said the American helicopter went down while “conducting operations to assist Iraqi Security Forces” in the attack. It said two crew members died and their bodies were recovered. The statement did not give any information on why the aircraft crashed.

It was the second US military helicopter to do down in eight days. 12 US soldiers died on January 20 when a Black Hawk crashed north east of Baghdad. The Army says it is investigating the cause, but a Pentagon official has said debris indicated it was downed by a missile.

Mortar shells, meanwhile, hit the courtyard of a girls’ school in a mostly Sunni Arab neighbourhood of Baghdad, killing five pupils and wounding 20. United Nations officials deplored the attack, calling the apparent targeting of children “an unforgivable crime”.

The mortar attack in Baghdad occurred about 11am at the Kholoud Secondary School in the Adil neighbourhood, police and school officials said. The principal, Fawzyaa Hatrosh Sawadi, said students were mingling in the courtyard during a break in exams when at least two shells exploded.

The blasts shattered windows in classrooms, spraying students with shards of glass.

Hours after the attack, grieving parents wept as the bodies of their children were placed in wooden coffins. Police said four of the girls were killed instantly and a fifth died later.

In a joint statement, UNICEF and UNESCO called the attack “yet another tragic reminder of the risks facing Iraq’s schoolchildren".

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but a Sunni organisation, the General Conference of the People of Iraq, blamed Shiite Muslim militias with ties to government security forces. The group said in a statement that the mortar shells bore markings indicating they were manufactured in Iran, which US officials accuse of supporting Shiite militias.

Three bombings, meanwhile, struck Shiite districts in Baghdad, killing at least seven people and wounding 61, police said.

The worst incident was a car bomb that killed at least four and wounded 39 at an outdoor market in Sadr City, a sprawling slum that is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a militia blamed for much of Iraq’s sectarian bloodshed.

The mortar attack and bombings appeared to be part of the sectarian reprisal killings that have pushed Iraq into civil warfare over the past year, violence that president Bush hopes to quell by sending up to 21,500 more American soldiers to Baghdad and surrounding areas.

US officials have long accused al-Qaida in Iraq, a Sunni Muslim group, of fanning sectarian hatreds by staging vicious attacks on Shiite civilians. Revenge killings have surged since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the largely Sunni city of Samarra last year.