At least 5 killed in attack on militia

BAGHDAD -- American and Iraqi soldiers targeting a Shiite militia that had been smuggling weapons in southern Iraq killed at least five people Friday, angering provincial officials who accused U.S. forces of using excessive force.

Hours later, three explosions, including an attack reportedly carried out by a female suicide bomber, killed at least six pilgrims outside the Shiite holy city of Najaf, also in southern Iraq, police said.

U.S. officials said the militia had been planning attacks in the region. Those concerns, as well as the suicide bombing, suggest that extremists are seeking to spread havoc ahead of March 7 parliamentary elections in southern provinces that in recent months have been among the least violent in Iraq.

U.S. military officials said the operation in Maysan province, which borders Iran, targeted Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia. It was among the militant groups that splintered in 2007 from armed forces loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The U.S. military said in a statement that when American and Iraqi soldiers arrived in Ali ash Sharqi village, they came under fire from people in houses. The soldiers "returned fire, killing individuals assessed to be enemy combatants," the military said. It said at least five people were killed.

The province's governor, Mohammed Shyaa al-Sudani, told the state-run al-Iraqiya news station that eight people were killed. Witnesses said at least one was a woman. "What happened this morning in the province was a massacre," the governor told the station.

The governor said the village is not known for harboring insurgents, and faulted U.S. officials for not consulting with provincial officials before the raid.

After the shootout, U.S. military officials said they took 12 suspected Kataib Hezbollah members into custody who were "believed to be actively smuggling and stockpiling Iranian-made weapons."

Kataib Hezbollah is among the Shiite militant groups that broke away from Sadr's movement when he ordered most of his militiamen in the Mahdi Army to lay down their arms and emphasized the organization's cultural and political arms.

U.S. officials say Kataib Hezbollah receives training and funding from Iran. Iran denies the allegation.

American officials accused the group of attacking several U.S. bases in 2007 and 2008 using rocket-propelled bombs, usually fired in volleys from trucks. A U.S. base in southern Iraq was attacked with that type of bomb last month.

Meanwhile, Iraqi officials said a female suicide bomber and two roadside bombs killed at least six pilgrims on a road that links Najaf and Kufa. Scores of pilgrims have been killed in recent weeks in southern Iraq. U.S. and Iraqi officials are divided over whether the attacks could be the work of Sunni extremists trying to undermine the Shiite-led government, or that of Shiite militants seeking to use an uptick in violence for political gain.

Also on Friday, a figure billed as a leader of the Sunni insurgent group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq reportedly posted an online message threatening to derail the elections. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi called the vote a "political crime plotted by the Shiites," according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which analyzes insurgent propaganda.

Special correspondents Muhammad Ibrahim in Maysan and K.I. Ibrahim and Aziz Alwan in Baghdad contributed to this report.