Iraqis thwart plot to kill Shi'ite clergy

This is the story behind the story I posted yesterday. From the Washington Times:

Iraq's army announced yesterday that it had foiled a plot to kill leading Shi'ite clerics and killed the leader of a heavily armed band of messianic Shi'ites called "Soldiers of Heaven" during a fierce gunbattle near the southern city of Najaf...

The fierce 24-hour battle, which began Sunday, was ultimately won by Iraqi troops supported by U.S. and British jets and American ground forces, but the ability of a splinter group little known in Iraq to rally hundreds of heavily armed fighters was a reminder of the potential for chaos and havoc emerging seemingly out of nowhere. Members of the group, which included women and children, planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill as many leading clerics as possible, said Maj. Gen. Othman al-Ghanemi, the Iraqi commander in charge of the Najaf region.

Read the rest. This is proof that the Iraq Forces are stepping up, but lets don't leave the new-born democracy an orphan.