Laura Rozen has noticed one of the obvious problems:

Has anyone else noticed that we don't seem to quite know the identity of the 250 plus gunmen killed at Najaf yesterday? "Iraqi security officials offered conflicting accounts of the identity and motives of the heavily armed fighters outside Najaf, variously describing them as foreign fighters, Sunni Muslim nationalists, loyalists of executed former dictator Saddam Hussein or followers of a messianic Shiite death cult. Some witnesses reported that the attackers wore colorful Afghan tribal robes." That's a pretty broad range of possible affiliations for people to be in a several hour major battle with to not know roughly who they are.

There have been lots of theories about who these rather remarkable “250 gunmen” were, but apparently none of the descriptions and answers supplied by the Iraqi National Government seem to be very convincing. We’re had lots of opinions and statements about them.

One amazing description quoted “security sources,” saying “…the insurgents involved in the fighting had included both Shia and Sunni Muslims, as well Afghans, Saudis and Sudanese fighters.”

So it appears that this group comprised just about every bugbear in the Middle East, except for Iranians. Remarkable indeed. It appears that my original take on it, born of scarred and hardened cynicism, that they were pilgrims was wrong. While I regret the error, it seems safe to say cynicism is never misplaced when viewing any Bu$hCo action, or Iraqi mudrumble.

All the stories seem to agree that there were about 250 of them, and that they were taking refuge in an orchard, possibly a date palm orchard. There has been no mention whatsoever of their being armed, other than for a report of a US helicopter “crashing,” with the two crewmen reported as dead, and one mention of approximately 30 Iraqi National (army or police) casualties. It’s been almost 24 hours – surly enough time for Iraqi and US authorities to actually enter the grove and police up any wounded prisoners, and perhaps more important, to collect the weaponry these people supposedly had, and display it for cameras.

In an update Laura quotes the NY Times that “the 500 [!!!] gunmen involved in the huge clash near Najaf yesterday were members of the messianic Shiite cult, "Soldiers from Heaven." They had apparently planned to "storm the city during a religious festival and kill the nation’s top Shiite clerics." The group's leader is named Ali bin Ali bin Abi Talab, and Iraqi officials describe the cult as "Shiite in its 'exterior,' but not in its 'core.'”

Whatever that means.

While Iraqi officials stressed today the group’s mixed membership and fringe beliefs, on Sunday two senior Shiite clerics said the gunmen were part of a Shiite splinter group that Saddam Hussein helped build in the 1990’s to compete with followers of the venerated Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

They said the group, calling itself the Mahdawiya, was loyal to Ahmad bin al-Hassan al-Basri, an Iraqi cleric who had a falling out with Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr — father-in-law of the Shiite leader Moktada al-Sadr — in Hawza, a revered Shiite seminary in Najaf.

With so many competing stories, it’s hard to winnow through them all to find the truth. Perhaps when CENTCOM produces their first official narrative we’ll be able to eliminate one of the stories.