Soldiers of Heaven

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The Soldiers of Heaven or Jund al-Samaa (Arabic: جند السماء) is an armed Iraqi Shi'a religious group.^[1]

The Age and other publications describe the organization as an apocalyptic, messianic religious cult^[2]^[3] The leader, Dia Abdul-Zahra, called himself Mahdi bin Ali bin Ali bin Abi Taleb, and he claimed to be the Mahdi, a prophet or messiah-like figure in Islam.^[4] Reportedly, they numbered around 1,000.^[5]

The members of the group appeared to be mostly poor Shi'a farmers from an agricultural area 19 kilometres northeast of Najaf, but they also seemed to have been heavily armed. In spite of their poverty, the group appeared to have amassed a great deal of wealth.^[6] The Iraqi government claimed that they are linked to groups loyal to Saddam Hussein, and the area had once been controlled by Saddam's al-Quds Army, a paramilitary organization he established in the 1990s.^[7] It seems the former Iraqi ruler did try to use a Mahdist faction as a weapon against the traditional religious leadership in Najaf, whom he saw as a threat.^[8]

Iraqi officials have claimed the group had links with al-Qaeda, but given that Sunni jihadists are fiercely anti-Shia, this seems unlikely.^[9]

On January 28, 2007 the group apparently fought a battle with Iraqi and U.S. forces near Najaf where it is alleged about 200-300 of their members were killed, including its leader, and 300-400 captured.^[10] Asaad Abu Gilel, the governor of Najaf has claimed that members of the group, including women and children, planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill leading Shi'a clerics during the Ashoura holiday.^[11]

Significant questions remain regarding the group and the combat effectiveness it displayed. A Shi'a cleric in Basra said the Soldiers of Heaven is the armed wing of a movement led by Ahmed bin al-Hassan, which believes the return of the Hidden Imam is imminent. Virtually all other information about the group has come from Iraqi officials, who have released incomplete and sometimes contradictory accounts.^[12]