Report: 1,200 now 'detained for questioning' about Najaf cult battle

Captured 'militants' after the battle. Iraqi military officials claim 300 were killed, but reports about the origins and conduct of the battle have been conflicting.

NAJAF, Iraq - Iraqi police on Wednesday detained hundreds of people suspected of being linked to the Soldiers of Heaven religious cult as burials began for the 350 cult members who were killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops in a bizarre shootout on Sunday.

But the cult remained shrouded in mystery, and authorities struggled to explain its connections and the origin of $10 million found on the cult's farms outside Najaf, a Shiite holy city.

Some 600 townspeople were detained Wednesday, in addition to the 590 held since Tuesday, but it was unclear what charges, if any, would be filed against them.

The dead from Sunday's shootout included an unidentified British citizen who was a barber for cult leader Thiya Abdul Zahra Kathum al-Qarawi, according to a spokesman for the governor of Najaf. Little is known about al-Qarawi, who claimed to be the earthly representative of the "Hidden Imam," the last of 12 Shiite saints who disappeared in the ninth century, according to Shiite theology. Police said Wednesday that he came from Diwaniyah, a city that is halfway between Baghdad and Basra.

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