Al-Qaeda leader in Samarra killed, his successor detained (Roundup)

Aug 4, 2007, 13:55 GMT

Baghdad - An Iraqi security source said US forces had killed al-Qaeda leader in Samarra, believed to be the mastermind behind the February 2006 bombing of the al-Askari mosque in Samarra, which pushed Iraq to the brink of a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis.

Haitham al-Badri, alias Haitahm al-Sab, was killed Tuesday in a US airstrike targeting al-Qaeda terrorists in Samarra, 120 kilometres north of Baghdad, the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Officials also claimed al-Badri killed Atwar Bahjat, an Iraqi correspondent for the pan-Arab al-Arabiya news broadcaster, her cameraman and her soundman.

Bahjat had been reporting live from Samarra following the al- Askari mosque bombings one day before she was murdered.

A few of al-Badri's family members were present during his burial Wednesday in south-east Samarra.

The security source said the US forces, which hit areas where al- Qaeda terrorists were believed to be located, didn't know they had killed al-Badri.

Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces arrested Ali Talal al-Bazi, the successor to al-Badri.

In other news, a US marine was killed while conducting combat operations in Anbar province to the west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the US military in Iraq reported Saturday.

The marine was killed Thursday, the statement added.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry sent Saturday a committee of senior officers to investigate the killing of an aide to the top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, a senior officer from the ministry told the independent Voices of Iraq news agency.

In north Najaf, three gunmen in a vehicle shot dead on Thursday Sheikh Fadel al-Aql, a deputy of al-Sistani, near his home 160 kilometres south of Baghdad.

Al-Aql was the fourth assistant of the Shiite cleric targeted over the past two months.

Al-Sistani is the highest Shiite authority in Iraq.

In other developments, US forces were seem placing concrete blocks on all the roads leading to the main market in Muqdadiyah, 45 kilometres north-east of Baquba city, to use it as a military base in the restive Diyala province, local residents told Voices of Iraq on Saturday.

Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, is 60km north of Baghdad. It has been witnessing security crackdowns targeting militants in the past few weeks.

In Kirkuk and the Tigris river valley, US-led coalition forces detained 33 suspected terrorists during operations targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq and its associates.