Air Strike Kills Mastermind Behind Iraqi Golden Mosque Bombings

By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

Aug. 5, 2007 - The senior al Qaeda terrorist believed to be the mastermind behind both bombings of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, was killed during a coalition air strike, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesperson told journalists in Baghdad today. "Yesterday, the government of Iraq announced that the coalition force killed a senior al Qaeda terrorist, Haitham Sabah al Badri," said Navy Rear Adm. Mark Fox, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq. "He was killed east of Samara on Aug. 2."

Al Badri, whose body was positively identified by family members, is believed to have masterminded both the February 2006 and June 2007 bombings of the Golden Mosque that ignited widespread sectarian violence. He also is thought to have been involved in an Aug. 28, 2006 attack on a Samara checkpoint that killed 29, as well as the June 23, 2006, bombing of the Kirkuk courthouse.

During the operation, coalition forces raided a series of four buildings associated with al Badri, Multinational Force Iraq officials reported. About four armed men moved from the targeted buildings into outdoor tactical fighting positions in what ground forces viewed as a set-up to ambush approaching coalition forces. Responding to the hostile threat, they called in close-air support.

The strike killed al Badri and three other terrorists, one of them a foreign fighter. Ground forces also found weapons on site and detained seven other suspected terrorists.

Fox called eliminating al Badri, considered al Qaeda's emir of greater Samara, another step in breaking the cycle of violence instigated by the attack on Samarra's holy shine. While this is one more broken link in al Qaeda's chain, Fox said the coalition is not relaxing.

"We've always felt that, even in a weakened state, al Qaeda is very dangerous," he said. "Our approach to how we handle that is to take down the car-bomb networks, is to go after these different nodes and cells."

Fox said the Iranian-backed "secret cell" poses another force for coalition and Iraq forces to turn their attention. "(They) are apparently rogue or splinter, he said. "We're going after those kinds of rogue elements just like we're going after al Qaeda."

Official Cites Iraqi Government Responsiveness After Mosque Attack

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

June 19, 2007 – A senior defense official today credited decisive action by the Iraqi government with helping to prevent last week's bombing at the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, from escalating into widespread sectarian violence. Bryan Whitman, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, cited the Iraqi government's "very positive response to a very tragic incident."

Two near-simultaneous explosions on June 13 destroyed two minarets at the mosque, one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq. An investigation is continuing to identify the perpetrators, Whitman said.

A previous attack on the mosque, in February 2006, set off widespread retaliatory attacks between Sunni and Shiia groups.

Iraqi leaders "were pretty aggressive" following the second bombing as they reached across ethnic lines to the Iraqi people to calm tensions, Whitman said. They instituted a curfew, which was lifted early June 17, visited the site personally and committed to rebuilding the mosque.

"Time will tell in the days ahead" if these actions can prevent a recurrence of the kind of violence that followed the February 2006 bombing, he said.

Whitman condemned the "tragic and terrible bombing" of a Shiite mosque in central Baghdad today, but drew no link between it and the Golden Mosque attack. A truck bomb reportedly struck Baghdad's Khilani mosque, causing heavy Iraqi civilian casualties.

The incident occurred as the U.S. troop surge deployed to help stabilize Baghdad reached full force.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said in June 17 interviews that the surge has helped reduce sectarian murders and executions in Baghdad by one-third between January and April. And despite an uptick in violence in May, the levels of violence are again going down, he added.

"The fact is, as we go on the offensive, the enemy is going to respond," Petraeus said.
Petraeus said the additional troops give him the combat power to launch operations in al Qaeda sanctuaries where there has been little permanent coalition force presence in the past.

These troops "are in the midst of conducting full-scale offensive operations," Whitman said today.

Officials Urge Calm in Iraq While Planning Way Ahead After Mosque Attack

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

June 13, 2007 – A senior U.S. military official in Iraq joined Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today in urging calm in the wake of an attack today on the Golden Mosque compound in Samarra, Iraq. Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, said the coalition joins al-Maliki in urging the Iraqis to remain calm and allow legitimate Iraqi security forces to make "appropriate response."

U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, MNFI commander, met this afternoon with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to discuss possible responses, Bergner reported via a Digital Video and Imagery Distribution System broadcast from Baghdad.

They agreed to "a number of military and political actions to promote security and restraint in the wake of this inflammatory attack," he said.

"This will be a cooperative endeavor as we go forward and assist the government of Iraq," he said.

Bergner condemned the attack, which destroyed two minarets at the mosque compound, as "an affront to the values and dignity of people from all religions."

He called the attack Bergner called the attack "a deplorable attempt by terrorists to divide and destroy the confidence of the Iraqi people."

"It is further proof of the enemy's indiscriminate violence and the depths to which they will go to incite hatred," he said.

Bergner's comments echoed those expressed by Crocker and Petraeus in a joint statement released earlier today.

"This brutal action on one of Iraq's holiest shrines is a deliberate attempt by al Qaeda to sow dissent and inflame sectarian strife among the people of Iraq," Crocker and Petraeus said. "It is an act of desperation by an increasingly beleaguered enemy seeking to obstruct the peaceful political and economic development of a democratic Iraq."

The leaders said they share in the outrage of the Iraqi people about this crime, and they called on all Iraqis to reject the call to violence. "We cannot allow these terrorists to work against the interests of the Iraqi people who are seeking peace and prosperity for all," they said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates expressed similar sentiment during a media roundtable today at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

"It would appear to be yet another effort by al Qaeda to try to prevent political reconciliation in Iraq, to try and stoke sectarian violence," he told reporters traveling with him.

Gates said he hopes the Iraqi people realize the attack was a transparent effort by the terrorist group to incite the sects and force more division between Sunni and Shiia Muslims. He also expressed hope the Iraqi people will realize this and refrain from violence.

A February 2006 al Qaeda attack on the mosque, one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq, ignited widespread sectarian violence.

(Jim Garamone and Army Sgt. Sara Wood all contributed to this report.)

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