Word: karbala
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January's attack on U.S. forces at the Iraqi government complex in Karbala has become a kind of epic unsolved mystery among troops at Forward Operating Base Iskan, where soldiers from the unit involved are based. There is no shortage of theories among the roughly 30 troops who were there as to whom was responsible for the attack. Many soldiers believe the attackers, who appeared wearing U.S. military uniforms and speaking English, were Iranian operatives from the notorious Quds Force. Some think the assault party that entered the complex in a convoy of SUVs was a rogue cell...
...outside, little has been revealed about the possible involvement of Iraqi Police who were inside at the time. But the final report of the official military investigation into the incident says there is some evidence to suggest that Iraqi Police who'd been working with U.S. forces in Karbala for over a year helped orchestrate the attack...
...formal split. The majority backed the claim of Mu'awiyah, Governor of Syria, and his son Yazid. Ali's supporters, who would eventually be known collectively as Shi'at Ali, or partisans of Ali, agitated for his son Hussein. When the two sides met on a battlefield near modern Karbala on Oct. 10, 680, Hussein was killed and decapitated. But rather than nipping the Shi'ite movement in the bud, his death gave it a martyr. In Shi'ite eyes, Hussein is a just and humane figure who stood up to a mighty oppressor. The annual mourning of Hussein...
...religious repression was uneven. Sunni Caliphs in Baghdad tolerated and sometimes contributed to the development of Najaf and Karbala as the most important centers of Shi'ite learning. Shi'ite ayatullahs, as long as they refrained from open defiance of the ruling élite, could run seminaries and collect tithes from their followers. The shrines of Shi'ite Imams in Najaf, Karbala, Samarra and Khadamiya were allowed to become magnets for pilgrimage...
...Iraqi colonel told Time that the captured men all seemed to be Shi'a and came from heavily Shi'a areas such as Hilla, Karbala and Diwaniya. Given the chasm between the two groups' religious and political goals, an alliance between al-Qaeda and the Army of Heaven seems far-fetched. It is more likely an attempt to divert attention from unsettling realities. Chief among those realities is the Iraqi Army's inability to defeat a band of cultists without hours of air support from the U.S. military. This speaks to the limits of the Iraqi Army's competence...