Thulfiqar Army?

[gottaB]

The New York Times (Burns, presumably) is reporting that the Army of the Mahdi in Najaf has been threatened by a new group:

American commanders were also closely monitoring reports from inside Najaf said that growing anger of residents there against Mr. Sadr and his militiamen, who have sown a pattern of lawlessness since launching an uprising in the city earlier this month, had taken a startling new turn with a shadowy group of assassins killing at least five Sadr militiamen in attacks on Sunday and Monday.

Those reports, from residents of the city who reached relatives in Baghdad by telephone, said the killings had been carried out by a group calling itself the Thulfiqar Army, after a two-bladed sword that Shiite tradition says was used by Imam Ali, the martyred son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed, the patron saint of Shiism. Accounts of the killings said the new group had distributed leaflets in Najaf threatening to assassinate members of Mr. Sadr's militia, known as the Mahdi Army, unless they left Najaf immediately.

One Najaf resident said some of Mr. Sadr's militiamen were shedding the black clothing that had been their signature during the weeks that they have occupied Najaf and large parts of other cities in central and southern Iraq with majority Shiite populations.

The same resident said that he knew of two killings of Mahdi Army members on Sunday, near a roundabout in Najaf named for the 1920 tribal revolt against British colonial authority in Iraq, and that three more Sadr militiamen had been killed later on Sunday or Monday.

Link

The best info I can find on Thulfiqar is some apocalyptic mumbojumbo (surprise surprise):

....The Imam A.S. will then embark upon providing proof of his own. He will produce the Standard, The Alam which will have been unfolded. It is said that the Standard has been used only twice. In the war at Badr and in the war of Jamal. They will ask the Imam for proof that this is the same Standard. The Imam will instruct the Standard: "disclose your identity". It is said that the flag will become vocal and will say, "I am now being held by the rightful descendant of the Prophet, the true Mahdi of the day." The Imam will then produce Thulfiqar, (the sword) which will become vocal and will say "I am in the hands of the rightful owner of mine, the true descendant of the Prophet and the true Mahdi of this day." Even that will not satisfy them....

link, from google cache

Any thoughts?

[RafterMan]

1. Interesting, not entirely surprising

There was that guy who gave the sermon last Friday at the Imam Ali mosque calling for the "thuggish cowards" (or similar) to get out of Najaf immediately. Remember that Sadr's religious authority is basically self-granted, based on his father's achievements. And in taking up his mantle of leadership, he jumped a lot of ranks in the Shiite hierarchy.

Before this latest explosion, I'd become very impressed with Sistani's political skills -- maybe now he's using other means to deal with his upstart rival. Some will probably see it as a CIA plot, but if it is, it's a better one than a military assault.

I'm cautiously encouraged.