From the Los Angeles Times

U.S. blames bombing in Iraq on Shiite hard-liner

The American military thinks that Haydar Mehdi Khadum Fawadi is responsible for an attack that was intended to incite Shiite-Sunni conflict.

By Ned Parker and Usama Redha
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

10:32 AM PDT, June 18, 2008

BAGHDAD — The U.S. Army today accused a Shiite Muslim hard-liner of being responsible for a deadly truck bombing in a Baghdad neighborhood, with the aim of provoking a new cycle of sectarian war among Iraq's Shiites and Sunnis.

The death toll rose to 63 from Tuesday's blast, which had the hallmarks of an attack by Sunni extremist groups like Al Qaeda in Iraq. Residents of the Hurriya neighborhood had even blamed Sunni politician Adnan Dulaimi, whose guards have been accused of past violence in the capital.

But U.S. military said they believed the attack had been carried out by a "special group," its term for fighters who belong nominally to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia or have broken away.

The term, in effect, draws a distinction between the Sadr movement's moderate and more radical elements. The Americans accuse Iran of funding, supplying and training the "special groups," which Tehran denies.

Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a spokesman for U.S. in Baghdad, said the Americans believed Tuesday's bombing was orchestrated by fighters under the command of Haydar Mehdi Khadum Fawadi, also known as Haydar Majidi. They identified Fawadi as a key figure involved in seizing homes that belonged to displaced Sunnis and renting them out to Shiite families. An estimated 10,000 Sunni families fled Hurriya in November 2006 at the height of Baghdad's civil war.

"We believe he [Fawadi] ordered the attack to incite violence against Sunnis; that his intent was to disrupt Sunni resettlement in Hurriya in order to maintain extortion of real estate rental income to support his nefarious activities," Stover said. "He killed Iraqi civilians and attempted to incite retaliatory bloodshed."

U.S. and Iraqi forces have chased Fawadi for months and are offering a $50,000 reward for help in his capture. Mahdi Army members, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fawadi had been expelled from the their militia about two years ago and had a reputation as a criminal.

After Tuesday's bombing, which was the deadliest since March, the government warned it would not allow any side to spark new sectarian strife.

"This crime won't affect our will and determination in achieving the full defeat of terrorists and maintaining the security achievements that has been accomplished by the armed forces and the security forces," Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's office said in a statement.

In other developments, a car bomb in the northern city of Mosul wounded eight people. The city has witnessed a major campaign to drive out Sunni militant fighters, but a string of assassinations have continued, targeting journalists, lawyers and professors.