Or maybe just like Kansas City News:

NAJAF, Iraq: Iraqi police Wednesday detained hundreds suspected of being linked to the Soldiers of Heaven religious cult as burials began for 350 cult members killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops Sunday.

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 a few miles north of Najaf, a Shiite religious center.

—Kansas City Star, online: ‘Soldiers of Heaven’ plot still a Mystery

Oooh! A Mystery that authorities now "struggle" to explain. Like one of those tense Talkies that you see playin on ya SCREEEEN. Not so much a Horrific Mass Murder Spree. But a Mystery! Ooh la la!

Let's see if we can scoop some more details out of thisheah Mystery®. Maybe if we go to some Middle East News sources instead of Murkan Midwest sources, we can get closer to the necessary clues.

The fighting took place on the Diwaniya-Najaf road and spread into nearby date-palm plantations after pilgrims sought refuge there.

'American helicopters participated in the slaughter," Jassim Abbas, a farmer from the area, told IPS. 'They were soon there to kill those pilgrims without hesitation, but they were never there for helping Iraqis in anything they need. We just watched them getting killed group by group while trapped in those plantations.'

Much of the killing was done by US and British warplanes, witnesses said.

—Asia Times online: Pilgrims massacred in the 'battle' of Najaf

Go USA! Go USA! YEAH BAB-AY! That's what you call REAL military MIGHT, yo!

US and British warplanes and helicopter gunships strafed people hiding in plantations and pilgrims who attempted to find refuge in the village of Zarqa.

The fighting began when a procession, which included men, women and children of the al-Hatami tribe, was fired on as it approached an Iraqi army checkpoint.

—Socialist Worker Online, US covers up Iraq massacre

Whoa! Flashback to Vietnam! Well...I don't personally flash back, as I was only born in 1969! But I do flash back to Apocolypse Now, which is similar. Anyway, once you've seen one "strafing running children" clip, you've seen them all. As Bush says, it's only "Violence on Your TV Screen." And we see that all the time!

At least we can take comfort in the fact that when the startled pilgrims saw five of their number cut down by gunfire and complained to soldiers, who were horrified to find out th—Oh...wait. I may have that slightly wrong. Let me check—

Okay, back. I was wrong. It seems that when the pilgrims complained that five of their number had been wrongly killed, the gunfire increased. Sorry about that.

We thought it was one of the usual mistakes of the Iraqi army killing civilians,” [Jabbar al-Hatami, a chieftain of the al-Hatami] said. “So we advanced to explain to the soldiers that they killed five of us for no reason. But we were surprised by more gunfire.

—Socialist Worker Online, US covers up Iraq massacre

Ah, yeah. One of those "usual mistakes" of Iraqi Army killing innocents. But no, my friend. This ain't no usual wrongful murder! This is Strafing for Liberty, vato! Way to win those [moving] Hearts & Minds [targets]!

I don't know...why do the words Sand Creek keep bouncing through my head? Damn. Maybe I read it on a brochure somewhere. Travel brochure? Corn cake recipe? Sorry. Skipped my mind.

Tribal leaders say that 263 were killed and 210 were wounded. A further 600 were arrested.

Iraqi police reported that around 100 detainees were 'Sunni terrorists' from Yemen, Algeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The claim was later withdrawn.

—Socialist Worker Online, US covers up Iraq massacre

See? Those Iraqi troops are learning some Murkan Style! We just gotta stay in there another five years or so, and we'll have them mastering e-voting scams and news leaks that expose their own undercover intelligence agents to harm!

Film footage aired on Iraq’s Al-Sharqiya TV station the day after the massacre showed hundreds of men, women and children surrounded by Iraqi troops. No sophisticated weapons were found.

—Socialist Worker Online, US covers up Iraq massacre

So...after a little reading news sources a little closer to the action than Kansas and Texas, we begin to get the feeling that we did not surge all over these civilians because they were Soldiers of Heaven on a Death-Kill-Cult-Fiesta.

According to Azzaman the tribes were attacked because of a dispute among Shia factions: “The slogans [the tribes] raised and the demands they made seem to have angered the government and prompted a violent response.”

Both tribes are critical of Shia leader Ayatollah Ali Sistani and Sciri, a US backed militia behind many sectarian massacres of Sunnis. They say this is why they were labelled as supporters of Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida.

Azzaman says that Iraqi authorities have banned journalists from talking to survivors.

—Socialist Worker Online, US covers up Iraq massacre

Hmm....I dunno. It almost seems like there is some junk going on in Iraq that we don't know about. I mean...I thought we were just waiting for some massive group of Iraqis to Stand Up so our soldiers could Sit Down already. Wasn't that it? The Bushian Musical Chairs strategy? I mean, that's what I voted for.

Because these esoteric Middle Eastern Type News reports are worrying me. It sounds like they think there's all kinds of complicated political and religious stuff going on. Stuff that you can't shoot. Stuff you can't bomb. Stuff so complex that you really can't blame our media for making up cool headlines like HELLISH END FOR SOLDIERS OF HEAVEN or SHOWDOWN WITH SOLDIERS OF HEAVEN. It just wouldn't sell any subscriptions to, instead, type "United States Military, With the Help of Strong Coalition (UK) Rains Death Down on Scared Spiritual Seekers."

The avalanche of Iraqi government information -- some of it contradictory -- on the so-called “renegade militia” should have alerted the U.S. media that things were not quite what they seemed. Officials said the group was a Shi’ite zealot “death cult”; a group of “foreign fighters” dressed in Afghan and Pakistani tribal robes and carrying British passports; Sunni Arab nationalists; Saddam Hussein dead-enders; and/or al-Qaida. Baghdad officials also said the scene of the battle was a “fortress,” filled with “heavy weapons.”

None of the charges could be corroborated because the Iraqi Army barred all press from talking to survivors or examining what the Times called a “network” of trenches and bunkers lacing the “militia camp.” Some of the government statements should have immediately failed the smell test: “Shi’ite zealots” do not rub shoulders with Sunni al-Qaida. The “Soldiers of Heaven” is not an armed group. And what were Pakistanis and Afghans doing in southern Iraq?

—Foreign Policy in Focus: The Najaf Massacre: Annotated

Those furren reports are depressing. You know, I'm thinking that I don't really like them so much. They make me feel like maybe all the world doesn't love what we're blowing up as much as we do. That's why I think it's really best if we all just stick with established American News sources like the Kansas Star, the Texas TV station KTRE-TV, and the patriotic New York Times. They know how to win this War on Tierra. They "get" that pondering local reality and eyewitness reports is just caving in to Terror by trusting unAmerican philosophies. They know how to keep morale up in this long War of Terror!

Despite the IPS, Independent, and Arab media reports, The New York Times continues to report that the battle was with a “renegade militia.” [...] The details on the camp, the weapons, and the charge that Najaf was the target are straight from Iraqi government sources.

The way the U.S. media has reported the “battle” of Zarqa is a virtual replay of the kind of reporting that characterized the run-up to the Iraq War. The media seems to be taking a chillingly similar tack in its reporting about “Iranian interference” in Iraq.

—Foreign Policy in Focus: The Najaf Massacre: Annotated

Amen.