The official story is that the 200+ Iraqis killed this week by U.S. and Iraqi Army forces outside Najaf were members of a bizarre cult, the “Soldiers of Heaven,” who were planning to massacre top Shi’ite clerics in Najaf during a religious holiday.
However, reports are surfacing that this was actually a great big mistake – a completely accidental, unpremeditated clash between a Shi’ite tribe on pilgrimage to Najaf and Iraqi troops at a checkpoint that somehow got out of hand. See here and here.
Those are not independent sources, but just two different sources reporting the same stuff that is, per your first source:
I guess blogs are now “independent… websites”. I’m unconvinced. Somehow these innocent pilgrims were able to shoot down a helicopter. Did the just pray for it drop out of the sky?
I’m stll waiting for something resembling an independent source to provide reliable information, but there is no conflict, in theory, between the group being religious pilgrims, (even religious pilgrims with peaceful intentions), and also being heavily armed. Being armed is, unfortunately, a wise precaution in Iraq these days and numerous tribes have built up self-defense militias over the years.
True. But there is conflict between the two versions given of their plans: to make their own innocent pilgrimage to Najaf, or to massacre Shi’ite leaders there.